


Bound by Destiny

by tigercry



Series: Bound By Destiny Collection [1]
Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, F/F, Future scryer - Nozomi, NicoMaki, Supernatural AU - Freeform, Umi's Kotori's bodyguard, Werewolf Pack, angel - Kotori, mage - Nico, werewolf - Eli, werewolf - Maki, werewolf - Umi, werewolf soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:55:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 37,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25579195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigercry/pseuds/tigercry
Summary: New city, new college, same smile magic and an annoying best friend that can see into the future, Nico Yawaza never expected her college life to get so chaotic. Sure she knew Nozomi was a werewolf's mate and guessed there were other werewolves and supernaturals in Eli's pack.However, she hadn't been expecting a redheaded werewolf with poor communication skills and probably the most well-known supernatural a.k.a an angel in the world to be part of it! NicoMaki + Kotumi centric
Relationships: Ayase Eli/Toujou Nozomi, Minami Kotori/Sonoda Umi, Nishikino Maki/Yazawa Nico
Series: Bound By Destiny Collection [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1853848
Comments: 57
Kudos: 78





	1. Her Eyes May Be Beautiful, But She's A Total Klutz

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve read “Casual Lunacy” by Blinkkittylove probably a hundred times cause it’s so good, and so I finally started on a supernatural AU of my own ^-^ Granted there are some aspects spun off of the inspiration story, but those are minor things (a.k.a Nico’s nicknames for Maki and Maki’s obsession with scents)  
> Get ready for the chaos of supernatural Love Live characters! XD

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico, meet Maki, Maki, add acting dumb in front of a cute girl to your list of character traits.

Nico Yawaza wasn’t a fan of moving.

If she had the choice she’d stay in one place throughout her college years and then consider expanding her acting talents to somewhere that’s more than a few hours away from her home. 

She didn’t mind traveling, visiting different cities or countries for a week or two or even months if she had to, but moving? Ugh. However, this was a move she hadn’t really had the choice of making. Not when she was definitely a high level inducer mage and a prestigious college offered her a full-ride scholarship to switch schools that publicly accepted supernaturals. Plus…

“Nicocchi!”

Nico had her breath completely knocked out of her as someone who was larger than her, which was most of the world actually, squeezed her tightly. Her face was squished against the person’s chest and anger flashed through Nico’s small body.

“Get off of me!” Nico squirmed in her friend’s arms only to squeal when the hug tightened further around her small frame and her feet were lifted off of the ground, “let me go you perverted grape!”

Well this was certainly some welcome. Here she was, having just finished her morning acting class, the stage was huge! Bigger than she had ever seen before, and now she found herself being squished to death by her childhood friend.

“Auh, I’m hurt Nicochi! Just for that,” the offending hug tightened enough for Nico to hear her spine popping in a few places.

“Fuck you Nozomi!” Nico squealed through the hug, flailing her arms, “I have half a mind to blast you off of me!” She was happy to see her, even if she was threatening to blast her into a wall just to escape her clutches and being held against the curves that Nico lacked. 

Nozomi merely laughed, “I missed you too Nicochi!”

“Let…” Nico struggled in the suffocating hug, “me… go!” 

Another voice giggled and Nico felt something cold and wet against her ankle and promptly froze. “Nozomi-”

“What. The Hell. Was. That!” Nico freaked out, “seriously Nozomi let me go!”

Nico stumbled into the offending person as she was released, “now that was rude Nicochi, that’s how you treat friends.”

“Friends? Something just touched my leg you jerk-face!” Nico snapped and leaned on Nozomi to crane her head around and lift her leg to see what exactly had touched her.

Nozomi merely chuckled, “it was just a dog Nico, calm down.”

Nico groaned, her fingers brushing over the wet spot on her ankle, “seriously? Who keeps a dog with them on campus?”

“Excuse me,” a gentle voice with a higher pitch spoke up and Nico instantly spun around to face them. 

A young woman with ash-blonde hair and soft golden amber eyes looked back at Nico with a mildly amused smile and thin eyebrows. She was decently tall, about four inches taller than Nico with soft freckles scattered around her fair skin and gentle rosy cheeks. It was clear to Nico that she was well informed in a fashionable sense with her soft cream colored billowy skirt and ruffled shirt beneath a darker blazer paired with nude ankle boots on her feet and a designer backpack/purse slung over one shoulder. However she was also obviously super natural if the soft white wings tucked in at her back weren’t an illusion placed on her. She was also rather familiar, but how exactly she wasn’t sure.

“Sorry about that, Caspian loves to sniff people,” she explained with a gentle smile and Nico’s attention was drawn to the gestured animal beside the woman’s feet and she yelped in surprise.

There was a wolf-dog casually sniffing at Nico’s sandals.

At Nico’s yelp of surprise the wolf-dog looked up at her, curiosity shimmering in it’s amber eyes.

“Caspian, heel and sit.”

The animal snuffled as a reply, it’s tail flicking just slightly to one side before it trotted over to its owner and dropped down in a comfortable sit. It was long and slender with dark black fur, angled ears, a slender and long snout and long legs. Key features of a husky-wolf mixed breed. It had a white diamond on it’s chest that trailed up into coating the underside of it’s black muzzle. There was a small diamond shape between the eyes which were a dark shade of amber on one side and a bright silver on the other. The way it looked at Nico gave off a sense of high intelligence as though it was studying her and it’s surroundings at the same level or higher than a human’s.

It was wearing an expertly made dark grey and yellow harness system on it’s back with a few pouches on the sides. There was an easy release muzzle of sorts around the base of it’s muzzle, one strap around the top of each leg, and the sides of the harness read ‘Friendly Guard Dog.’ 

However, even if the harness made it look almost like an intimidating military dog, the headband shattered the illusion. The headband near it’s ears with bobble antennas combined with the harness’s color scheme; made the intimidating dog seem like a completely harmless dog in a bumble-bee costume.

Nico couldn’t stop the snort of laughter that escaped her lips, “first off, that costume is the best thing I’ve seen all day, and second, who needs a personal guard dog?”

“Oh Nicochi…” Nozomi chuckled and spoke to the wolf-dog’s owner, “sorry Kotori, seems like Nico’s not exactly paying attention at the moment.

“Hey!” Nico retorted and narrowed her eyes at her friend, “I am paying attention! My brain’s just trying to catch up after you starved me of oxygen by trapping me with my face shoved against your chest you weirdo!”

The person named Kotori giggled and Nico looked up and over at them. “Seems like you two get along really well!”

“She’s a little harsh and rude, but she’s still my best friend,” Nozomi chuckled and Nico smacked away the hand that Nozomi rested on her head.

“Stop flexing that you’re taller than me you monster and introduce me to your new friend!”

Nozomi and the other woman laughed before Nozomi gestured to the dog and owner, “Nico, meet Kotori Minami and her guard dog Caspian.”

Kotori smiled warmly at Nico, “good morning Nico! It’s nice to meet a fellow supernatural on campus.” She looked down at the dog, “the new universities laws are definitely working huh girl?”

The dog gave a dog-like smile and twitched her ears before she tilted her head up to look at Kotori with her tongue half dangling out of the side of her mouth.

Kotori giggled and rubbed the wolf-dog’s head, golden eyes soft and twinkling in the light.

Ash-blonde angel with what Nico minorly 

It finally clicked and Nico’s jaw dropped, “are you serious?”

Nozomi nodded with a teasing smile, “and Nicochi here was worried I wouldn’t make friends when I first got here.”

“No, I knew you’d be fine,” Nico brushed the comment off, “especially since you met your furry girlfriend. However…” She glared at Nozomi with her hands on her hips, “you could’ve told me that you were friends with one of the most well known supernaturals in the freaking world Nozomi! I mean this is ridiculous! You know the liaison of the supernaturals and humans on a personal level!”

The nearby soft piano playing faltered briefly at the exclamation of angered shock and the wolf dog at Kotori’s feet swiveled her head toward Nico. An intense look of guarded studying lay in the wolf-dog’s eyes.

“Relax,” Nico reached out and let the dog warily sniff her hand, “I’m an actress, it’s my job to play a different part every other minute.”

The dog flicked an ear and re-focused on looking around and observing the rest of the main area.

“Don’t think you’re off the hook Nozomi,” Nico caught the arm of the chuckling future scryer and narrowed her eyes at her again. “This totally breaks the best friend code and you owe me for it.”

Nozomi smiled, green eyes twinkling in the low lighting, “then let's get lunch Nicochi, we’ll invite a few of my other friends.” She looked over at Kotori, “it’ll give _her_ a chance to stretch her legs and relax a little.”

Kotori blinked and nodded while Nico merely glanced suspiciously between them both.

“What’s going on here?”

Nozomi merely gave a secretive smile and Nico instantly felt a little wary, “nothing Nicochi, there’s this cute little cafe just off of campus nearby that’ll be a perfect place to catch up.”

Nico narrowed her eyes, studying the other woman in hopes of figuring out what Nozomi was up to. _What is going on? Nozomi’s normally secretive but this is on a whole other level._

“Whatever you see in the future,” Nico spoke slowly, “ better not involve anything embarrassing or dangerous for Nico, Nozomi…”

“Dangerous? Nope,” Nozomi chuckled. “Life changing? Maybe,” she gave Nico a wink that made her suspiciousness shoot up ten levels before she turned toward Kotori.

_What the hell?!_

“I know which cafe you’re talking about,” Kotori smiled before Nozomi could speak up. Her warm smile held secrets of her own that Nico could depict and didn’t like one bit. “So I’ll meet you two there, I have to drop Caspian off before I can leave the campus.”

“Okay, then goodbye Caspian,” Nozomi cooed and rubbed the wolf-dog’s ears before Nico felt her hook her arm through hers. “Come on Nicochi, let’s get going and leave Kotori to her personal business.”

“Hey!” Nico complained at being jerked around by her best friend. “I can walk by myself Nozomi!”

However, at the amused giggling Nico heard and the amused smiles directed toward her and Nozomi as they jogged toward the entrance she let her anger fizzle out and soften. Attention was good, Nico liked attention. Even if it was because of her idiot of a best friend dragging her around the what looked like a miniature music concert and toward the door.

 _Why’re there so many people here? Are they listening to the piano?_

Indeed there was a woman sitting at the piano directly next to the open doors with only a little of her lightly curly red hair visible to the short ravenette. 

_It’s just boring classical music, what’re they watching for?_ Truthfully Nico had no idea why there was close to thirty people sitting on padded benches, on the floor, or uncomfortable looking stools listening to some student play boring iconic classical music. Especially when it was music everyone who had taken a music classes had heard. Sure, the woman was skilled at them, Nico would give her credit there, but they weren’t unique or anything. 

“Maki!” Nozomi’s voice startled Nico from her thoughts and she quickly realized that Nozomi was detouring toward the pianist. 

Who faltered a cord but quickly caught herself with a short bout of improv that gave Nico a tiny hint of what the gathered students were here to listen to. 

“Yes?” The pianist’s voice was a little raspy but largely refined and smooth beneath the rasp with a tell, of someone with Nico’s vocal training could pick up on, as someone who could sing. “I’m a little busy Nozomi, I only have a few minutes till I have to leave.”

Nico was more focused on the music than anything else, her trained ears picking up on hints here and there of the pianist’s natural style and it didn’t seem like the iconic classics she was playing right now were something she’d naturally play. The piece was too stiff while the pianist’s improv had been so fluid with a low mix of various genres till it seemed like she had found the correct genre and improved back into the boring piece.

“...was taking my friend Nico to lunch and wanted you to come with us. Kotori’s going to meet us there along with Eli.”

Nico blinked, zoning back in at the sound of her name and the softening of the piano’s volume.

The pianist sighed and the piano trailed off, one last chord ringing out through the air, “fine.”

The pianist efficiently but almost reverently wiped down and closed the piano’s lid, getting some boos and complaints as the gathered students got up and began to scatter. 

She then slid off of the piano bench into a standing position facing them both. “Only because I doubt Kotori and Eli would be pleased if I brush you off this time Nozomi.”

“Nico,” Nozomi broke Nico out of her music related head space and back on the world around her. 

“Huh?” Nico blinked then furrowed her eyebrows, “what do you want Nozomi?”

Nozomi’s eyes twinkled mysteriously as she gestured a hand to the red haired pianist in front of them, “this Maki, Maki Nishikino. Med school student who loves music and one of Eli’s best friends.”

Maki had wavy red velvet colored hair that was almost curly, fair pale skin without any visible blemishes, and a body type that contrasted Nico’s but fit the curved slender body type to a t and was close to five inches taller than her. Her legs, beneath the denim cuffs of her capris, were toned and just slightly tanned and the loose partially buttoned red plaid shirt over a black tank-top flattered her body in a lazy ‘I know I’m pretty’ way that both irritated Nico and drew her in.

That’s when Nico’s gaze traveled up and landed on the pianist’s violet colored eyes. And where she then felt that sharp tug, a sharp tug from her magic. 

Nico blinked, her vision adopting greyscale with splashes of color here and there relating to the emotions of the people around her while everything froze. Feeling her magic naturally flowing through her body and collecting at her hands act strange. Instead of pooling at her hands and recirculating back through her body and spreading thin amounts to the people around her it was wrapping around her dominant hand and wrist.

Her magic, naturally shifting between green and blue, transitioned to a smooth pink as the shimmering tendrils converted into one thicker one and now approached the time-frozen pianist Nozomi had introduced as Maki. The pink trail of magic wrapped slowly around Maki’s dominant hand, wrapping around each of her fingers and stopping at just above her wrist.

No… 

Years ago Nico had used a spell, a complex spell that would only activate if she was within range and looking at the companion of her magic. Who was essentially her soulmate.

Nico jerked, the world returning to normal as her arm phased through Nozomi’s and she stumbled back a few steps, fingers clasped around her own wrist in pure shock as she just stared at the other young woman.

Maki blinked back at her, her nose flared a little almost too little for Nico to see. However, the following blush that lit up the redhead’s face and the stumble into turning away from her and leaning against the piano with a hand splayed over her face to hide her blush was obvious enough for the whole world to see.

Neither of them said anything and neither did Nozomi, the purple haired woman was completely silent, knowing green eyes flickering back and forth between the embarrassed redhead and Nico’s shocked still form.

This woman, this redhead with some sort of piano skills and currently an adorably red face, was Nico’s soulmate. Nico wasn’t exactly sure how she felt about that right now. Even if Maki was completely adorable right now and Nico could tell that she was rather shy by her blush. 

Plus, she was obviously a supernatural, after all humans didn’t have soulmates, but what exactly was she? She looked perfectly human even with the small scar on her cheek and there weren’t a ton of supernaturals that even had the whole destined partner thing and she only knew about a handful of them herself.

Nico managed to pull herself together and dropped her wrist before she managed to pull a shaky but confident smile toward the redhead. “It’s nice to meet you Maki-chan,” she greeted with as enthusiasm as she could gather while only half functioning due to shock, “the name’s Nico Yawaza and I’m a drama and singing student here.”

Maki managed to stand up and face her again but her face was still red and she lifted a hand to mess with her wavy hair and twirl it around a finger. “Um… hi,” she managed and Nico frowned.

The other girl just met her soulmate and she says, ‘um, hi?’ Like what the hell girl?

“Wow,” Nico grumbled, “eloquent. For someone who was just underhandedly roasting my best friend you really can’t talk to pretty girls like myself now can you?”

Maki appeared kind of dazed around her intense aura of nervous awkwardness and Nico could see hints of silver swirling in her violet colored eyes. “S-Sorry,” she stumbled some more over her words, “I’m not used to s-something like this happening.”

Granted the redhead sounded adorable fumbling over her words in a nervous fluster, but still. If the girl couldn’t even talk properly in front of her how was Nico supposed to be able to tap into the excess magic the girl produced _for her_ and use it to bring a smile to every audience member’s face? That took a friendship and relationship, which took communication. Something this woman clearly lacked in.

“I’m not either Sherlock,” Nico rolled her eyes, “it happens once in someone’s lifetime. It’s just my luck that I get-”

“You have a strong smell,” Maki suddenly blurted then turned an even darker red and turned part of her back to Nico without saying anything else. 

Nico gawked, what. The. hell. 

“Excuse me?!” Nico snapped and fumed. So the woman could stutter and stumble like an idiot and the first thing she said about her was that she smelled?! “How would you know anyway?! You’re over three feet away from me!”

The redhead easily rose to fight, violet eyes flashing as she cooly faced Nico regardless of the dark red of her face and ears that nearly matched her hair. “I have a sharp nose I’ll have you know. And it’s not exactly like I was expecting it to be someone like you either!”

“Well then excuse me for not being prepared to meet you after a lecture in the stuffiest lecture hall I’ve ever been in!” Nico drawled with narrowed eyes, “and I’m a brilliant actress thank you very much! It’s a privilege to be paired with the great Nico-Nico-Ni!”

Maki scoffed, “gross, that’s ridiculous.”

“Oh yeah? Well who exactly are you Miss. Stuck-Up-Pianist!” Nico snapped and took an angry couple of steps toward the redhead.

Maki took a few steps toward Nico and smirked down at her, a delicate finger poking the shorter woman in the upper chest. Around her anger Nico had to admit that the redhead looked gorgeous with that smug smirk on her lips and confidence glowing in her silver flecked purple eyes. “I’m a medical supernatural specialist in training and a music prodigy, Miss. Nico-Nico-Ni.” She then narrowed her eyes, “as for what I said earlier, I never said you smelled _bad,_ just that you had a strong smell.”

Nico felt her eyes widen. Screw the redhead’s communication skills, she did what?!

There was no way Nico was this lucky but also unlucky at the same time and when she tried to speak nothing came out. The shock being just too much for her at the current moment. 

How? How was her magic’s companion some stuck up genius? Someone that could easily be as great or even greater than Nico herself. Nico didn’t like the possibility of someone being better than her, especially the person who she was supposed to be with via fate’s demand for the rest of her slow aging life.

At Nico’s lack of rebuttal Maki’s bright fighting flame dimmed and the redhead quickly stepped back. Fumbling with herself to get her personal space back and succeeded only in knocking herself down onto the piano bench and almost off the bench and onto the floor. “Ow!”

At the blatant clumsiness and Nozomi’s giggle Nico mentally snapped back to the rest of the world and crossed her arms over her chest with a huff and a roll of her eyes. “Wow, I’m stuck with someone who can play an instrument but can barely put one foot in front of the other.”

“Shut up,” Maki glared back at her from the piano bench as she sat up, “I’m not that clumsy.”

“Say the one who tripped over a piano bench,” Nico deadpanned, “you nervous or something Maki-chan?” She definitely was, even if she wasn’t really sure why. After all, it was going to work one way or another between them so what was the point in being so nervous?

“N-No!” Maki’s stutter gave her away even if the force behind her glare strengthened, “I’m not nervous N-Nico,” she stumbled a little over the name and made a face.

“What? Something wrong with my name?” Nico questioned, narrowing her eyes and stifling the grin that wanted to appear on her face. She had finally met her soulmate, and while she was horrifically incompetant at communicating, a flustered Maki was already beginning to become one of her favorite things in life.

“No,” Maki snapped back, “Nico...chan?” She seemed to be testing the honorific and Nico couldn’t help the smirk.

“Good,” she turned to Nozomi, “ignoring Mrs. Clumsy-Pants over there, can we go now? I’m hungry and in the mood for something sweet.”

“Hey! I’m not clumsy!”

Nozomi had a warm smile on her face as she watched the other two interact and she chuckled lightly and began to walk toward the music and performing arts building’s glass doored entrance, “Of course Nicochi, I’m sure Kotori and Eli are already on their way there.”

“Perfect, time for Nico to decide if your friends are approved or disapproved,” Nico hummed, rubbing her hands together as she trotted beside Nozomi with Maki trailing awkwardly behind them. 

“What score does Maki get?” Nozomi asked curiously with a smile.

Nico glanced at the redhead behind them checking through her pile of music in her arms to put in a folder, “Maki-chan’s approved, even if she’s an awkward clutz.” The sound of falling paper only solidified Nico’s claim.

“I’m not a klutz!” Maki snapped even though she started falling behind as she scrambled to scoop up her music and catch up again. 

“Ah, I agree,” Nozomi hummed and Nico caught her rather mischievous wink with a tiny smirk of her own.

“That’s not… whatever! Just get back here and help me when it’s your fault!” 

* * *

**A/N: More sketches that I didn't have a place for...**

**Caspian**

**Nicomaki**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any guesses on who Caspian is? Xd


	2. You! You Were the Dog That Licked Me Earlier!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico, Maki, and Umi have an eventful time at the cafe where some details about the past are revealed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Meet Umi guys ^-^ Well one physical form and one side of her personality anyway...
> 
> \-- SKIP TO BOTTOM FOR REVISION OVERVIEW IIF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ IT AGAIN. --  
> The revision has to be read for proper story flow and foreshadowing as it's been revised purely for the characters' backgrounds.

Of course the cafe had the classic tinkling noise when the door opened. Of which Nico saw the adorably sulking Maki wince from and the redhead’s scowl became just a little more realistic and less of a pouting sulk.

Nico filed the information away for later and instead lightly grimaced at just how small and oddly decorated the cafe was. “Nozomi, you still have zero taste for places that look more than half-decent.”

Nozomi merely chuckled, “what does appearance matter when the food and atmosphere is pleasant Nicochi?”

Nico rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to say something about how it helped the business when Maki stole the words from her mouth. Well, more like she stole _some_ of them.

“Appearances effect the overall business,” Maki drawled with a look of disinterest on her pretty face, “however, that’s not the case here and if you have a problem with this place you’re welcome to just leave Nico.” Her purple eyes flashed briefly, “this place gets plenty of business without a stuck-up mage whining about it.”

Nico narrowed her eyes at her, “I was just commenting on it’s appearance! How’s it bad to have a more refined palette?”

“That’s called being picky,” Maki deadpanned with narrowed purple eyes, “and a picky eater is someone who’s afraid to try new things-”

“Nico!” Eli was now standing at a table and casually interrupted Maki with a smiling wave that appeared just a little tense if Nico’s eyes weren’t deceiving her. “Nozomi! Over here!”

Nico felt Nozomi’s finger brush her arm and she looked up to see warm green eyes looking back at her. “Don’t judge appearances too much Nicochi,” she commented before turning toward the blonde with a smile and walking toward her, leaving the pair of newly revealed soulmates to themselves, “coming Elichi!”

A smile that Nico wished someone would smile at her like. The smile where someone’s eyes softened in affection and their lips pulled up in a way that showed a little teeth but displayed the emotion they held for the smile’s recipient. 

Nico’s eyes flickered unknowingly to Maki and her now standard flat scowl. Would she eventually warm up to her? Or was she stuck forever with an awkward and adorably klutzy woman who didn’t show many positive emotions on her face and would never really like her?

Maki’s purple eyes seemed to briefly unfocus for so little time that Nico couldn’t be sure it even happened before Maki’s sharp eyes were focused and directed at her out of the corner of her eye. Her hands tucked casually into the pockets of her capris and her body language more relaxed than it had been just seconds ago.

“Take a good look around,” Maki’s voice was lighter, more of an even request instead of a smooth and irritating command. “You seem to like reading the room so get a read on it before you judge this place.” With that the redhead followed Nozomi’s lead with Nico’s eyes focused on her retreating figure.

 _Take a good look around? Okay, sure I guess,_ Nico gave a mental sigh and her fingertips briefly glowed a soft pink, a color change that Nico actually enjoyed as it was her favorite color, and the sounds around her distorted. Sound and movement slowed down until all at once it stopped at the command of her temporary time freeze spell that didn’t require a visible gesture. 

Once everything stopped, the young mage took a few steps forward, her footsteps echoing around her as the only sound that bounced around the four walls of the small cafe and began to explore.

The cream and orange painted walls appeared to have been painted just a little sloppily with strokes visible in the paint and some childish splatters thrown into the walls. Nico ran her fingers over the rough wood of the circular tables and noticed quickly with a wince that the tabletops weren’t as smooth as they could be and why the cafe used trays. 

_It’s not professional done at all,_ the mage admitted as she approached the counter where a woman had her thick dark blue hair mostly let loose with a single hairband at her shoulder level and mildly taming the waist length navy locks. The woman’s long fringe and bangs hid most of her face from Nico’s side view, but her neat and professional get up made her stick out slightly in the cafe’s very informal near childish aura Nico was now picking up on. 

The counter was well made, glistening metal and glass that displayed an assortment of pastries and rice related dishes with a small register next to a vase of delicately made origami roses and flowers of various colors. On the otherside of the counter was an assortment of pictures with one in particular that caught her eye. 

It was a framed picture of Maki sitting at a piano in a lazy hoodie and sweats with a bunch of kids sitting on the floor around her as she played, her fingers frozen on the keys and her head tilted in a way that made Nico wonder if she had been singing in the image.

Instinctively her fingers reached for the image before they stopped just shy of a milimeter from the picture. Did she really want to find out if Maki sang via another spell? Wasn’t it something she should wait for the redhead to eventually reveal on her own?

_Tick…._

_… Tock..._

The brief ticking of a clock in Nico’s ears made her pull away from the image and focus on one of the other images. An image of Nozomi with a mysterious look on her face holding a tarot card between two fingers and a very nervous looking brunette sat across from her while Eli was mid rolling her eyes near Nozomi.

Nico chuckled and rolled her eyes, her gaze wandering around the rest of the cafe. 

That’s when she noticed the small but beautifully made piano of the photo sitting tucked away from the rest of the cafe. Around the piano the walls were smooth and painted with care. Painted with a reverence for the instrument sitting there in the small cafe. 

Nico took a seat on the edge of the piano stool and lifted the piano’s cover before carefully running her fingers over the keys. The piano was a key link to her soulmate, 

For someone she had just met, Maki was easy to read in regards to her opinions and her interests. 

One higher pitched note rang out through the dead silence of the time magic, but even that one note sounded different than the way Maki had played her improv earlier. 

Was it strange that the biggest thing she wanted right now was to hear the redhead really play? Not some stiff sorry excuse of classical music, but something the redhead really wanted to play?

Another few notes rang out, Nico’s small fingers mimicking some of the stiff music Maki had played earlier.

It was so strange, Nico had just met the fiery and emotionally challenged redhead and yet it felt like she had known her for years, not mere hours. 

_I guess that’s part of the whole ‘soulmate’ thing._ Nico mused as her fingers moved slowly over the keys, _who knows if that redhead even feels any of it with her attitude._

_Tick._

_Tock._

Nico sharply jerked away from the piano with a grumpy glare, _stupid piano! Making me think about that klutzy redhead!_

She refocused on the cafe and briefly closed her eyes. When she heard the whoosh of magic she reopened them, the world bathed in tones of grey besides the people. The people glowed with emotion and normally there was a lot of sadness and stress due to the college campus. However…

Most of the people here were happy, glowing a soft orangish yellow with only undertones of other colors. A woman with a small side ponytail was beaming yellow along with her shorter haired friend and the brunette behind the counter handling the pastries glowed a mix of yellow and blue.

Nico’s eyes went to the table with Nozomi, looking for the emotional tones of her friends.

Nozomi was a soft mellow yellow like she always had been when she was happy with faint undertones of grey and blue, which meant that she was likely just a tad nervous. Eli was yellow too but she was a brighter yellow than Nozomi and had the same undertones. Maybe they had something to tell her?

Kotori was there, the angel mage however was guarded. Her emotional cues were almost nonexistent and Nico was startled to notice that despite the grey and frozen time, the angel’s soft golden eyes had a pulsating neon green glow in the inner iris. 

Nico nodded lightly in approval, _a magic ward, good. She can protect herself._ She had already guessed that Kotori would be able to protect herself even from magic. 

Maki was hard to read, a mix of red like her hair, blue, and yellow but her cues flickered, telling Nico information she already knew. Now she was one-hundred percent sure that Maki wasn’t great at handling her own emotions and probably didn’t know how to express them very well.

However, the lack of a glow from a person caught Nico’s eyes and her attention swiveled to the blue haired woman standing at the counter looking at her digital watch. The woman had no glow and thereby gave no cues at all. Which was weird in and of itself. 

The only way to give no emotional cues was to have near robotic emotional and impulse control, and Nico only knew that from her family’s teachings. She had never seen it in her person before and while she had heard of the rumors she definitely hadn’t expected to see it in a place as casual as this.

_Tick._

_Tock._

_Tick._

Nico blinked and the world around her returned to its normal color as the spell’s grip on time loosened and sound and movement began to lightly assault her senses. However, as the magic faded and Nico felt the tug in her navel of her being put back into the spot she had been at before the spell, Nico conceded. Maybe, _just maybe,_ she had judged this place too quickly and Nozomi, not Maki, was right. Which meant she had a little work to do. After all, she wasn’t an influencer mage for nothing.

* * *

Maki felt like something happened as Nico disregarded her polite request to look around in favor of wandering gradually toward them but she wasn’t exactly sure what. It felt a little weird, as though something was telling her something at the back of her mind something but she couldn’t understand it and it bothered her. She could feel her frown thicken and the confusion that ran through her system brought on wary anger, what was Nico up to? Was it dangerous? Did she need to be on guard? She didn’t understand the short actress at all.

However, when Kotori gave a minute flinch then a giggle, Maki’s attention divided itself between Kotori and keeping a wary eye on Nico who was casually walking toward the counter.

What in the world was she doing? Didn’t Nozomi tell her to come to the table?

Kotori’s fingers brushed Maki’s arm for half a second in a motion of reassurance, “don’t worry, you’re feeling her magic Maki, there’s no reason to be on guard.”

“Magic’s dangerous,” Maki grumbled but she settled more comfortably in her chair. A sense of relief settling her restless wariness as she settled down and instead watched the pink mage.

“You might as well get used to it Maki,” Eli pointed out and Maki’s scowl deepened, “and you know why.”

“Whatever,” Maki huffed and pointedly turned away from Eli to watch Nico lean on the cafe’s counter with a bright smile that had Maki frowning harder.

“Hey, cheer up,” she could hear Nico speaking warmly to the shy brunette in the back, “your cafe’s beautiful.”

“O-Oh,” the brunette stuttered but Maki could hear the warm boost of confidence in the brunette’s voice. “T-Thank you… um…”

“Nico Yawaza,” Nico grinned and she casually tucked a ten dollar bill into the tip container with a warm smile at the brunette’s widened eyes, “you deserve it.”

Maki then watched as Nico walked away from the counter and toward a quiet student hunched over a bunch of textbooks who gave off a very stressed aura. 

She didn’t understand what Nico was doing nor how she could see the soft almost glowing of Nico’s red irises there were more pink than they were when she had first saw them.

“Her eyes…” she found herself asking without thinking, “is that...?”

“You can do it,” Nico spoke soothingly to the stressed student, Maki’s attention fixed on her and the student who visibly relaxed and straightened up to give Nico a tired smile. 

“It’s magic,” Kotori hummed easily and Maki saw her lift her mug toward her lips out of the corner of her eye, “her eyes glow when she’s using magic, Maki just like mine do.”

Okay, that made sense. However…

Nico spun around in a dramatic twirl before giving the student a goofy pose and a grin to match, “Nico-Nico-Ni!”

The student started to chuckle and lightly shake their head, producing a smile from Nico and a fist bump before she moved on to someone else.

...That, the way she acted didn’t.

“Hmm…” Kotori hummed, her tone rather curious, “she’s pretty powerful, I wonder what type of magic she wields...”

“What exactly is she doing?” Maki heard Eli ask from behind her while she was busy watching Nico move around the cafe and spread some kind of infectious cheer around to the down occupants. 

Was Nico an infection? Was her magic infectious and dangerous? If that was the case was she going to be stuck with an infectious parasite forever? Maki bristled at the thought. There was no way she was going to be the host for some leeching manipulating mage.

The soft brush of Kotori’s fingers over her arm forced Maki to refocus and she took a slow inhale to calm down. It was okay, the alpha was here and so was Kotori, there was no reason for her to freak out, none at all. Sure her soul-mate may possibly be the most manipulative person on the planet, but it was fine. Maybe.

“I think she’s an influencer,” Kotori explained and kept her fingers gently resting on Maki’s forearm, which Maki appreciated, the angel’s calm and relaxed attitude seeping through to Maki via her touch. “Influencers’ natural magic is emotion based and they can influence and detect and read emotion via their magic.”

“So she’s manipulating them?” Maki couldn’t help but grunt, great, so she was right.

“No,” Kotori’s answer threw Maki for a loop and she looked over at the angel, “Nico’s magic isn’t grey so she’s not manipulating them. It’s…” she hesitated, “it’s hard to explain to someone without magic Maki…”

“Great, now I’m lost,” Maki huffed and rubbed at one of her temples as she watched Nico make her way all around the cafe, “magic makes no sense.”

She watched Nico through the few moments of silence, aware of Nozomi and Eli’s exchange of glances and Kotori’s unfocused golden eyes.

“Oh,” Kotori exclaimed and abruptly put her mug down with a rather loud clink. Maki almost jumped, key word  _ almost, _ but she did turn and face her again.

“What?”

“Nico’s an amplifier,” Kotori explained, golden eyes twinkling in a way that Maki knew Umi was involved in the angel’s sudden exclamation. “Rather than manipulating people she acts as an amplifier for their positive emotion and siphons their negative emotions.”

Maki furrowed her eyebrows, it made a little sense, but how did it all work? Did it hurt people? Even after all of these years around magic she still had no idea how it exactly worked. Science mixed with magic yes, but she couldn’t for the life of her figure out how it worked.

Almost as though Nozomi knew what she was thinking, and she very well could’ve, the purple haired woman spoke up. “Maki, Nico’s magic is completely harmless outside of a theater. The magic doesn’t hurt, and she keeps her magic under control to only enhance positive emotions.”

The future scryer smiled gently at the redhead, “Nico’s the best actress and media influencer you’ve ever seen because, Maki…” her green eyes focused on the giggling mage who gave another student a high-five and began to finally make her way toward them, “Nico can make anyone smile with or without her magic.”

Maki let the words sink in and she sighed and leaned back in her chair. “okay, I’ll get used to the magic,” she admitted quietly with the barest hint of a smile on her lips.

* * *

“What I miss?” Nico’s ruby colored eyes wandered between the members of the table, only to lock on Maki’s bare hinted smile with a tiny amount of white at the corner of her lips. What? She was smiling?

However she didn’t get much time to appreciate it as Maki’s ears turned red and she adopted a now familiar scowl with her arms crossed over her chest and her fingers twirling her hair again.

That hurt, just a little, but Nico stubbornly turned away from her. “No seriously,” the mage huffed, “I missed something here, what is it?”

“Nothing Nicochi,” Nozomi lightly shook her head and Nico narrowed her eyes at her but Nozomi ignored it and changed the subject. “Let’s catch up okay? You missed a lot regarding Eli and I.”

Now that perked Nico’s interest and she picked up a saltine cracker and leaned back in her chair. Sitting with one of her knees bent and her sandaled foot on the chair with her, her other dangling with the tip just barely brushing against the floor. “Like what? You finally moved here to join your fluffy girlfriend two years ago leaving Nico all alone in the small city, you’re some well known Seer, and I’m guessing Eli’s the alpha of some werewolf pack here?”

She did notice out of the corner of her eye that Maki was studying her. The redhead’s flat gaze was oddly intense and focused directly on her. However, it wasn’t her primary focus, let the redhead stare and see just how great the great Nico-Nico-Ni was.

Eli blinked and laughed, long canines glinting as she laughed at Nico’s general summary of all of the events in her and Nozomi’s relationship. “Not quite,” she explained after she stopped laughing in favor of giving Nico a toothy grin.

“You got most of it Nicochi,” Nozomi smiled mysteriously.

Nico frowned, cracker forgotten as she looked suspiciously between her childhood friend and the blonde werewolf. “Seriously? What did I get wrong?” She leaned further back in her chair, “I thought I totally had that in the bag.”

“Well first,” Eli smiled, “how about you meet the rest of my pack first?”

Nico shrugged, “sure,” and tossed the cracker into her mouth.

“There’s Nozomi and I,” Eli introduced and gestured toward Kotori, “then there’s Kotori and her werewolf mate-”

“Hold on a sec,” Nico sat up properly in her chair and narrowed her eyes at her two friends, “you two numbskulls got the liaison of supernatural and humans in your pack?!”

Eli nodded with a mildly smug smile, “of course, how do you think she knows so much about werewolves?”

“It’s not that I’m surprised she’s in a pack cause I’m not,” Nico shrugged and returned to her earlier position on the cushioned chair, “I’m surprised that you of all people Nozomi joined a pack that just happened to have Kotori Minami there.”

Nozomi clicked her tongue with a soft shake of her head, “you shouldn’t doubt someone’s abilities Nicochi,” green eyes twinkled mysteriously at Nico, “you never know what may happen.”

Nico rolled her eyes, “well I’m certain that you’re perverted, Kotori’s alteast half-mage as the whole world knows, Eli’s under a spell of yours Nozomi, and that the redhead over here is a harmless klutz.”

“Harmless?” Maki snorted, “as if.”

Nico raised her eyebrows, “well excuse me princess, but my first impressions of you were that you’re very clumsy in front of pretty girls and that you can play boring classical music.”

“I’m not clumsy!” Maki snapped and crossed her arms over her chest, her finger twirling her hair again, “and I play more than classical, midget.”

Nico flared, “midget?! At least I don’t trip over my own two feet like you did when we entered this cafe!”

“You tripped me!” Maki shot back, “and you almost ruined my sheet music in the process!”

“Oh please, those pieces you were playing are the kinds of pieces every person who’s taken a music class has heard,” Nico waved her off. “Classical music is too slow and doesn’t have a good enough of a beat to sing to.”

“Hope your singing is better than your normal voice otherwise I may actually go deaf,” Maki deadpanned.

“My singing is top notch thank you very much,” Nico snapped, “I’m as good of a singer as you are being clumsy around me!”

“I’m not clumsy!” Maki snarled and Nico could’ve sworn she saw the tips of white canine teeth poking out from beneath Maki’s upper lip, “I work with instruments and surgical equipment everyday, how can I be clumsy when I never falter in either of those?!”

Nico gave a dramatic toss of one of her low pigtails, “by being around a pretty girl such as myself, clumsy-ass.”

Maki slammed a fist down onto the table, “I’m  _ not- _ ”

“Wow, you two certainly have a fiery relationship,” Kotori giggled, golden eyes twinkling softly with laughter.

“M-Kotori!” Maki snapped but the angel didn’t so much as flinch, instead she merely smiled gently at the redhead, golden eyes twinkling with amusement.

Nico merely rolled her eyes and snatched another cracker from the table, “whatever, Maki’s still harmless.”

“I wouldn’t say that Nicochi,” Nozomi hummed.

“Then what are you Oh-Harmless-One?” Nico rolled her eyes and gestured toward Maki with the cracker.

Maki slouched back in her chair with her arms crossed over her chest and snarled at her, canine teeth like a dog’s out for the whole world to see, “I’m a werewolf, stupid.”

Nico stared at her, scrutinizing her with narrowed eyes as if hoping she’d be able to really tell she was a werewolf. “Are you serious? Nico’s not impressed or convinced, you’re more like a fluffy clumsy puppy than a wolf Maki.”

Maki wrinkled her nose and bared her teeth at her, her canines lengthening further to enhance the snarl. A growl emerged from the redhead’s throat with the snarl, “I’m a  _ werewolf _ , not a  _ dog _ you dumb-ass.”

Nico held up her hands in a sign of mock surrender, “geez, relax. That does explain the whole smell comment though.”

Maki’s cheeks dusted pink and she sulked in her chair with a scowl, her canines barely poking out from beneath her upper lip. “I have a strong nose,” she muttered flatly and looked away from Nico.

Eli chuckled at the two’s antics, “Maki’s part of my pack Nico, that’s why all of us knew when you two met.”

“Wait, seriously?” Nico grimaced, “ew, that’s kinda creepy.”

“Not really,” Kotori chuckled, “it’s not as though we can hear each other's thoughts or feel their feelings or anything.”

“It’s just telepathy,” Maki explained without looking back at Nico, her cheeks still a little pink, “we can pick and choose who to talk to and respond to conversations at our own will. The only one that can contact all of us at the same time is the alpha.”

“Which is Eli, right?” Nico asked, feeling a little confused with the new flood of information. Even if seeing the redhead’s face was to die for right now.

Eli shook her head, “no, I’m the Beta, but I don’t lead the pack. It’s been around for much longer than I’ve been here.”

Nico narrowed her eyes, “but Nozomi’s not a werewolf and neither is Kotori, so…” her eyes landed on Maki and she groaned, “you?”

Maki looked insulted, “I am an alpha-beta class werewolf thank you very much, but no. If I was, I'd chase you away from me,” she deadpanned.

Nico ignored the jab, “then who’s the alpha?”

There was some light footsteps before a sixth voice joined in on the conversation. “Sorry about that, Rin was rather talkative today,” a couple of trays were set down before a suit coat was draped gently around Kotori’s shoulders, Nico hadn’t noticed till now that the ash-blonde had been missing her earlier blazer the entire time she had been here at the cafe.

“That’s alright Umi, nobody can be pried away from Rin’s ramblings about sports.”

“Unless you’re Umi-chan of course,” Kotori giggled and tucked the suit jacket more comfortably around her shoulders.

“Why?” Nico asked curiously.

“Because,” the sixth person, apparently named Umi, carefully sat down beside Kotori, “Rin’s a werewolf and I’m the alpha around here.”

The sixth person was the blue haired woman from next to the counter in a white and black striped button down long-sleeve tucked into black slacks, with a dark blue necktie and kitten heeled ankle boots. 

She had sharp angular features with an almost claw-like scar going across her nose, a mild almost invisible set of puncture scars on her lower lip, the tip of her right canine poked out from beneath her upper lip, and she had analytic dark amber colored eyes.

However, her eyes were vaguely familiar to Nico and it bugged her. 

Then it clicked in Nico’s head. 

The wolf-dog with Kotori earlier had one silver eye and one amber eye that perfectly matched the woman in front of her.

“You!” Nico pointed an indignant finger at the blue haired woman who was silently folding up her striped button down shirt’s sleeves to her elbows.

“Me what?” Umi replied smoothly, but there was amusement dancing vaguely in her dark amber eyes that told Nico that she knew exactly what she was talking about. 

“Don’t what me! You licked my leg earlier as that weird wolf-dog!” Nico accused, staring at her.

Everyone looked at Umi except Kotori who merely giggled into her mug.

“Nonsense, I merely bumped you with my nose,” Umi shrugged lightly, “if I had not, Nozomi would not have let you go unless I spoke to her besides, it was highly amusing.”

Amusing huh? Well Nico certainly had something up her sleeve to combat that.

“No, what was highly amusing was the fact that you were a freaking bumble-bee.”

Umi shrugged, “it makes Kotori happy and gives me a place to carry all of my gear for a shift. Whether it’s a bumble-bee costume, a samurai costume or there’s a plush dog bone dangling in front of me on what looks like a fishing pole, as long as my getup is functional I don’t particularly care.”

“Wait, a dog bone on a fishing pole?” Nico’s eyes widened, “you have to put that on her tomorrow.”

Kotori gave Nico a sheepish smile, “I can’t, Umi-chan and I have an early flight tomorrow.”

Nico blinked, then her ruby eyes found her purple haired friend, “is that by chance the same flight you mentioned you were taking Nozomi that I’m supposed to do something to help with?”

Umi faltered and Nico saw a flicker of shock and confusion in her guarded eyes while Kotori’s eyes casually widened, her golden pools open to some of her emotions. 

“Oh,” Kotori said simply while Umi’s sharp gaze flickered between them both, the movements minute and hard for Nico to track.

Nozomi’s green eyes twinkled lightly, “Yes Nicochi, Eli, Kotori, Umi and I have a flight tomorrow and you’re going to stay with Maki.”

Nico’s mouth dropped open, “excuse me?!”

The three werewolves at the table flinched, well Umi’s eye barely twitched, at the loud sound.

“Sorry,” she apologzed at a softer volume, “now did I hear that right? Nozomi, you want me, a mage who’s been in town for all of three days, to stay with her?” She pointed at Maki who didn’t look thrilled herself. “A clumsy redheaded werewolf?”

“I’m not a disease,” Maki drawled as she rubbed at one of her ears and fixed a glare on Nico that shifted immediately to Nozomi, “lycanthropy is a genetic curse nitwit.”

“Stop insulting my intelligence,” Nico brushed her off and narrowed her eyes at Nozomi, “are you serious Nozomi?!”

Nozomi merely smiled mysteriously while Maki and Nico glared at her.

“This is a terrible idea,” Umi murmured under her breath and leaned back in her chair, brushing long blue bangs out of her amber eyes and mildly pursing her lips in disapproval.

Nico saw Kotori rest a hand on Umi’s forearm before the angel slid her fingers into the alpha’s. “If they need help you can always drop in and help Umi,” the angel pointed out, “it would only take a second.”

Umi’s lips thinned but she gave a slight nod much to Nico’s confusion.

“Hold up,” Nico held her hands up in front of her, “first Nozomi cashes in a favor for me to babysit Maki, then it sounds like a werewolf can teleport? How does that even work?”

Umi merely held out a hand and a blue swirling bubble hovered briefly over her palm before it vanished. That Nico could believe, what she couldn’t believe was that there were zero visible tells from her. “Kotori, and wings from a curse of a fallen angel,” Umi explained simply and whipped a black feather out of nothing before she let it fall to the tabletop. 

“Umi and Kotori are soul-mates” Maki spoke up in a rather haughty tone, “so Kotori can wield magic and so by extent, so can Umi.” She crossed her arms over her chest, “werewolves adapt to their mate’s abilities, which allows that phenomenon to exist.”

Nico wrinkled her nose, did she have to sound so high and mighty? 

“Sure, Umi has more control over them than someone like Eli or I would because of her curse, but the basics apply to all of us.”

“Okay, okay, I get it know-it-all,” Nico grumbled and leaned moodily back in her chair. “When am I supposed to stay at Maki’s place Nozomi?”

Likely sensing Nico’s mood, Nozomi didn’t try and tease her. 

“I can meet you at your apartment after your evening class-”

“No,” Umi interrupted her and Nico jumped a little at the alpha’s tone. “Give Maki the address Nozomi, Maki _will_ _do it herself_.” Umi’s tone was firm, rough like it was English mixed with an animal growl, and to Nico’s surprise, both Maki and Eli instinctively tilted their heads down. Maki barely moved more than half an inch though, a narrowed stare now focused on the bluenette as if silently challenging the request.

Umi stayed where she was, a flat stare combating Maki’s visibly frustrated glare.

Nico’s ruby gaze flickered between them but she didn’t speak. Normally she would’ve broke the tension with some joke or comment, but something told her to keep quiet besides the mild shake of the head from Nozomi. 

This was a serious moment and Nico tried to recall what she had learned back in highschool about werewolves when Maki shifted her gaze to soft spoken Kotori who narrowed her eyes in return. As though telling the redhead she wasn’t getting any support from her.

Umi was clearly an alpha, even if she was quiet and reserved compared to the loud impulsive stereotype that Nico had been warned against. She had that instant control Nico remembered hearing about, and didn’t need to use intimidation nor anger to maintain that control.

Eli had told her before that she was a Beta, able to take control if needed but naturally more of a reserved person with high impulse control for a werewolf. In fact if Eli hadn’t told her that Umi was an alpha she firmly would’ve believed that the bluenette was a mere Beta.

So if that was the case, what was Maki?

She was clearly challenging Umi’s decision here when she hadn’t been bothered by anything the alpha had done earlier. In fact it seemed almost as though she swung back and forth between having Beta level reserved attitude and skittishness and hot tempered and brash level Alpha moments from what Nico remembered back what felt like forever ago in high school.

Maki’s voice through clenched teeth broke her from her thoughts, “can I talk to you?” She asked aloud, in English, “alone?”

“Of course,” Umi’s voice was back to normal, smooth and richly calm, “Eli, do me a favor and watch Kotori for a moment please.”

“Sure,” Eli nodded and Nico’s eyes widened when the bluenette slid what looked like a small black pistol or sorts to the blonde beta across the table, who tucked it into the inner pocket of her jacket.

Nico’s ruby eyes followed Umi as she stood up and waited for Maki who leapt up and stormed off out the back door of the cafe, Umi silently walking at her heels. The blue haired alpha shut the door behind them both with a soft click lost to the general noise of the cafe.

Only then did Nico realize that she had been holding her breath as she released it slowly, “geez, forgot how intense werewolves are.” She leaned forward on her arms against the table, “what’s Maki’s deal anyway?”

“That’s for her to tell you,” Eli explained simply but Nico could see the way her eyes sweeped over the cafe that she was on guard and ready for anything. “Sorry Nico,” she apologized crystal blue eyes finally focusing on her, “but that’s something you should really ask her about. It’s not her proudest point.”

* * *

Umi remained unfazed,  _ “I have my reasons Maki,”  _ smoothly adjusting to the language change and not reacting to Maki grabbing her by the tie in fury.  _ “You’re angry because I told you what to do.” _

_ “No, you commanded me to Umi,”  _ Maki snarled, her grip tightening on the silken tie,  _ “there’s a difference!” _

Umi’s cool amber eyes stared back into Maki’s furious purple ones and Maki was reminded of a time when she was back in high school and got into a fight with a classmate. Umi had given her the same look as she was right now when she had taken her over to the afflicted student’s home and they helped their mother finish their garden. “ _ If I hadn’t, would you have listened to me?” _

_ “Yes!”  _ Maki snarled, teeth flashing. She had always done her best to listen to the blue haired alpha, even if she could barely stand it.

_ “No you would not have, Maki,” _ Umi growled the flat truth,  _ “you’re frightened of what Nico thinks of you.” _

_ “So what if I am?” _ Maki didn’t get time to finish the sentence as Kotori broke in, her voice holding a rare sharp tone.

_ Release Umi’s tie Maki,  _ Kotori’s tone softened when the redhead instantly released the silk,  _ we’re just worried about you. We both know how hard change is on you. _

_ Sometimes we have to force your hand before you see the forest instead of the tree in front of you. _ Umi added in and Maki felt like she was a kid again, being lightly scolded for doing something wrong.

Maki took a deep breath, inhaling the scents around her and letting the air drain some of the anger from her body like she had been taught many years ago. 

She wasn’t really mad at Umi, the alpha always did things for a reason even if she herself didn’t see it just yet. Rather she was more irritated by her first impression with Nico. She had portrayed herself as a harmless klutz rather than the cool reserved person she wanted to be seen as. She ran a hand through her hair with a growl,  _ “Nico probably thinks I’m dumb and clumsy without having to babysit me like a child, Umi.” _

_ “What was the word you said to me and Kotori when Nico’s meaning to you clicked?”  _ Umi questioned patiently as she smoothed out the fabric of her tie.  __

“Why? What does that matter?” Maki growled at her and lifted a hand to brush messily through her hair and making the wavy curls more messy than before.

She wasn’t some kid for crying outloud, sure she was younger than Umi, but so was Nozomi and Nico, and Kotori didn’t count. So yeah, she was younger, but she was intelligent and knew the ins and out of a hospital and surgical theator! She knew what she was doing and her life had been just fine before that midget crash landed in her life earlier today and already messed up every physical sense she had. Before of course being the biggest disctration she had ever had the  _ pleasure  _ to deal with.

_ “You said ‘magnetic,” _ Umi explained her logic behind her decision,  _ “Magnetic means if you face the right direction Maki you are bound to get what you want.” _

_ “Look,” _ the alpha sighed,  _ “I know you are scared and confused Maki and that I haven’t really prepared you for this kind of thing, but trust me when I say it’s worth every second of tears and arguing.” _

_ “How would you know?”  _ Maki grumbled and childishly kicked at a small pebble, _ “you and Kotori don’t have any issues Umi.” _

_ “Maybe now,”  _ Umi agreed then chuckled,  _ “but you of all people know that we’ve had disagreements in the past and struggled to make change work.” _

Maki sighed and hated that Umi was right. She had seen it first hand usually in the form of a frustrated and rather defeated for the moment alpha sitting on the couch with her head in her hands. Then she had seen Nozomi and Eli’s relationship develop over the years as well, not to mention her own parents. She knew arguing was part of any relationship, even if she had run and hid the first time it had happened with her new family, but it wasn’t like Nico even liked her all that much.

_ “Maki,” _ Umi hand touched Maki’s shoulder,  _ “Nico will support you in whatever you choose to do. You have the chance to be with someone in a relationship you know will work if you just take a couple steps in the right direction and work at it.” _

Maki’s brain stopped. Umi, the pack alpha who traveled with Kotori to about a thousand meetings a year or was following Kotori around as per her job, knew what she hadn’t told anyone. How did she know? 

How did she know she was struggling to choose between going to med school or finishing the last bit for a degree in performance music and composition?

_ “I...I” _ The growl was more of a half whine, an emotionally conflicted sound that matched what Maki was inwardly feeling.

_ “I pay attention more than that you think I do, kid,” _ Umi’s eyes twinkled before she leaned back slightly against the wall of the cafe. “ _ Besides, you two already fight like cats and dogs and it’s been less than a day. I doubt Nico’s prepared for what Kotori teases as ‘werewolf speed-dating.’” _

Maki felt her eyebrows furrow in her confusion,  _ “what do you mean?” _

_ “mages and other destiny bound soulmets take relationships slow,”  _ Umi barked _ , “ at least much slower than werewolves. Bonds form faster between a werewolf and the person they are bound to so for someone who’s not a werewolf it can be really confusing for the other person.” _

_ “Like how?” _ Maki barked back, trying to understand what Umi was saying.

“You’re asking the wrong person,” Umi switched to English and straightened up from the wall, “ask Kotori, it’s easier for her or Nozomi to explain this than me Maki.” She then lifted a hand and childishly ruffled the young werewolf’s red hair, “just relax a little, Kotori and I along with the rest of the pack are here for you Maki.”

“Hey! My hair!” Maki recoiled from her alpha’s hands and tried to straight out her now extremly messy hair. “What was that for?”

Umi’s smile softened, “haven’t done it in a while and wanted to break you out of your headspace.” 

Maki’s bad mood wilted, only to be replaced with embarrassment when Umi continued.

“You will have to talk to Kotori about how a relationship works from a non werewolf side, if you do I’m sure Nico would appreciate it.”

“I-I’m not in a relationship,” Maki stumbled over her words, “with N-Nico!” 

“For now,” Umi conceded, “but you are bound to her Maki and I of all people know how strong that pull can be.”

Maki knew for a fact that that was one-hundred percent true. She had met Kotori and Umi back when the angel had just graduated from school a year early, at seventeen and they had been together at the point. And that was what, ten years ago?

“I can’t believe I haven’t asked this before,” Maki deadpanned to the alpha with a sigh. She frustration about Nico was long gone by now, “but just how long have you and Kotori actually been together?”

“Hmm… just as mates? or dating as well?” Umi replied with a question and Maki looked blankly at her.

“Dating too, I know it’s been longer than ten years since you two were together when I met you.”

“Hmm… Umi looked up, seeming to think about the question for a moment before she replied, “hmm, you’re what, twenty now, Maki?”

“Yeah, you’re old Umi,” Maki snorted, unable to help the smirk that spread over her face.

Umi affectionately rolled her eyes, “I’m twenty-eight how can I be old? As for Kotori and I, you were probably what, six or seven when we started dating?”

Maki mentally did the math, Umi was twenty-eight, Kotori twenty-seven, and she herself was twenty. So if she was seven when they started dating… her eyes widened, “seriously?”

“I wouldn’t lie to you,” Umi chuckled, “so trust me when I say a bond’s pull can be intense.” 

“Yeah,” Maki replied slowly. Everyone learned something new everyday, but Maki hadn’t expected to learn this particular bit of information when she had been around the very woman in front of her that she had known for the past ten years.

“Come on,” Umi gave her a light push on the middle back, “Nico’s getting concerned and Kotori can only do so much to quell her worries.”

“Okay.”

Maki followed the alpha as she walked ahead and pulled the back door open. A spike of worry erupted irritatingly in her heart at the mention of Nico and the bitter tang to Nico’s scent that clung to her nose after the door opened.

* * *

**Speaking of Maki, Have a wolf puppy Maki!**

****

**I did end up drawing Kotori and Umi together, but I think I'm going to save it for the next chapter...**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Revision Highlights  
> \-------------------  
> \- All ages besides Kotori, Umi, and one other character, have been changed. Maki's still the youngest at 20, then Nico, Nozomi, Kotori, Eli, and Umi's the oldest at 28.  
> \- Rin's behind the counter instead of Honoka as her character's been completely redone.  
> \- The entire scene with Umi and Maki have been mostly redone to fit properly with Maki's background.  
> \- Maki's been around Umi for the past ten years.  
> \- Umi and Kotori have been together (dating and eventually mates) since Maki was seven.


	3. Personality Change Much???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Apparently Nico hasn't seen it all just yet. Especially when it comes to a certain birb's mischeif and teasing streak...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beginnings are not my forte, that’s why it’s so slow going regarding updates XD

Well at least the werewolf was punctual. 

Nico had to add that to the woman’s rather short list of good qualities besides ‘adorable when flustered’ and ‘clumsy.’

Still Nico merely cast a blank stare at the apartment door from the couch, _is it worth it?... Probably not…_ Not when the couch was so comfortable and her brain was so scrambled. 

Nico pulled the hair-ties from her pigtails and threw an arm over her tired face with the ties resting around her wrist. 

Of course the last class of her day just had to be college math. Ugh. The worst line of classes to ever fantastically _grace_ the world with.

There was then a long period of silence regarding the door and Nico found that she was mildly disappointmented that Maki hadn’t really put much effort into actually picking her up. 

Maki…

The adorably klutzy werewolf with a flashing temper and lots of mental and emotional walls. She was so hard to read, her emotions shifting constantly to the point where it would make Nico dizzy if she focused on her with her magic for too long. 

Even being hard to read however, Nico found that while the redhead had sounded either dumb or stuck up all day, she could tell that Maki was primarily confused, just like Nico was. After all, life didn’t hand out a manual on how to learn to get along with one’s soulmate, as Nico was finding. It was up to them to make it work, even if one of them was a younger stubborn easily flustered werewolf. 

“Hmph,” Nico grumbled and rolled onto her side, facing the back of the couch where her fingers began to pick at her threads. “Stupid werewolf, get out of my head…” it was annoying catching herself wondering how the werewolf would react in a situation or to what she said and even more frustrating when Maki had been offensive and haughtily above her all day. 

Especially when Nico had seen the messy red hair and striking purple eyes after each of her classes, standing silently studying a complicated medical textbook and waiting for her. The exception had been her last class and it had been odd to not not make eye contact with silent amethyst eyes and hear her silently following after her or leading the way in an almost, dare she say it, protective way? as she led her around to each of the classes that Nico was still familiarizing herself with the locations of.

It felt so strange and yet fitting to have known someone for less than a full day like Maki and to have a real connection with them. Like even though Maki should’ve been a near complete stranger to her, there was just something there. Something there that made the young red head seem drawn to her and made Nico feel so at ease with her. Even if they seemed to butt heads on literally everything so far.

The sound of a lock disengaging and the door opening pulled the sulking mage from her thoughts and Nico craned her head around the edge of the couch. 

“Excuse the intrusion,” Maki was now standing there in the entry of the apartment, violet colored eyes wandered methodically around the room around her. The redhead had changed clothes from earlier, wearing a pristine white lab coat over a black v-necked t-shirt and earlier dark jeans with her beat up converse she had been wearing all day.

“I don’t know, should you be excused? You are intruding in my home.” Nico found herself saying with a snort and relaxed on her back on the comfortable but mildly lumpy couch. Maki vanished from her eyeline as she did so, which provided her a few seconds of time to recover. Because what the hell? For someone who was as moody as Maki seemed to be, it wasn’t fair how effortlessly gorgeous she was.

“Only for now,” Maki replied a lot more of a levelhead than she had been at the cafe with her pack. “Where do you want me to put the gift I brought?” Right, the customary gift when entering someone else’s home. 

“Take it with you,” Nico mentally added, ‘aware of manners,’ to her list about Maki and rolled her eyes beneath the arm now hiding part of her face from sight that included the faint blush she could feel on her cheeks, “don’t need it.”

She heard Maki shuffle deeper into the apartment, her footsteps approaching her at a lazy pace. “Well it’s going on the coffee table, because it would be stupid to take chocolate home that I won’t eat.”

Nico perked up a little at the casual mention of something sweet, which sounded really good right now after her math class that all but turned her brain to mush. However she merely grumbled under her breath and removed the arm from her face to glare at the redhead. “ Do you mind?”

Maki ignored her glare and set the small but rather expensive looking box of chocolate down on the coffee table before she turned back toward her with an unimpressed smirk. Her right canine tooth poked casually out from beneath her upper lip and her waves of thick red hair was loosely held to one side over her shoulder with a scrunchie at chin level. “No, I don’t,” she replied to Nico’s comment and tucked her hands into the pockets of her white lab coat, “and for a college student you’re acting like a highschooler at finals. It’s just math.”

“Everyone has a crappy subject Maki,” Nico pushed herself up into a sitting position, “unless of course, you’re an academic genius or something too?”

Maki shrugged her shoulders but Nico could see the smugness in her toothy smirk, “graduated with honors and as valedictorian.”

“Of course you did,” Nico grumbled and felt a stab of self consciousness. Was she sure that Maki wasn’t the one with some crazy talent magic?

Maki’s expression flattened out and she jerked her head toward the door, “come on, if you hurry you’ll get to see Kotori make the sun set.”

Nico’s eyes widened and she sat up straight, “wait, that rumor’s true?!”

“What? That Kotori makes the sun go down and someone else makes the moon rise?” Maki blinked and appeared very confused that Nico didn’t know anything about it. And while the expression was adorable, Nico had other things to focus on.

Nico got to her feet and pushed past the redhead toward her bedroom, “yes, that Kotori Minami can adjust the freaking sun! What kind of magic allows her to that?!” She checked through the bag she had packed earlier, before math had murdered her, to make sure she had everything as she heard Maki’s cautiously slow footsteps.

“I.. don’t know?” Maki said slowly, “I think it’s a heritage thing. The luna’s bloodline is an ancient one or something.”

The term, ‘luna’ caught Nico’s attention as she zipped the bag shut. “Luna?”

“The alpha’s mate,” Maki explained and Nico almost giggled at how lost she seemed as she pushed the bag into her hands and set off to find her bookbag for her keys and phone. “Lunas are the pack’s other leader with the alpha... d idn’t you learn this in school? I thought most schools taught about werewolves to keep the risk of lack of knowledge from being a problem.”

“It’s been ages since I learned it Maki-chan,” Nico brushed it off as she finally located the bag, “and until now I hadn’t been around a pack at all.”

Maki’s eyebrows shot up, “seriously? There’s usually one central pack per city.”

“Well I grew up in a small city and there weren’t any werewolves there,” Nico shrugged and rummaged through her books and doodled on notes to find her phone and keys, “Eli was one of the first ones I met. Ah ha!” She triumphantly pulled the needed items from the bag and tucked it into her purse before she gave the red head a grin, “let’s go, I have to see this for myself.”

Maki’s purple eyes glazed over for a brief second, something Nico remembered Nozomi mentioning as a sign of telepathy back at the cafe, before their sharp gaze refocused on her. “Kotori said she’ll wait for you,” she explained simply and Nico could see the edge of a smile on the rather flat expressionless werewolf’s face.

“Sweeet,” Nico grinned and hoped at least a little of her good mood spread to Maki as she swiped the chocolate from the coffee table and flounced toward the door. After all, who got to see someone make the sun go down?

* * *

Nico’s eyes widened as she stared at the house they were approaching, a unique build close to the edge of the city, “w-what…?”

How? Were they all rich or something? And how come it was built relatively by itself without any really close neighbors? The closest neighboring house was back at the cul de sac Maki had cut through to make it here faster.

The house was huge and very modern, with lots of extrusions, varying distances in regards to the building’s front and sectional roofs in a slanted forty-five degree angle. It was built with lots of gray brick sized stones, spotless white paint, and sleek dark wood paneling with plenty of partially tinted black rimmed windows. There was a four car garage from what Nico could see, and judging by the open space around them, they likely had property too.

How?

“What?” Maki sounded genuinely confused as she took her wallet out of her bag and slid it across the gate’s scanner. While Nico stared at her as she watched the gate’s lock disengage.

“What do you mean _what_? You live in a modern mansion Maki!” Nico spun around toward the house and spread her arms out, “Nico’s only visited these for a few of her acting gigs and you straight up live in one!”

Maki gave her an odd look and paused mid action to open the front gate, “Uh, sure...?” She opened the gate and stepped through before after a moment to pause and seemingly to think about it, she held the gate open for Nico.

“Do all of you pay for it or something?” Nico asked as she accepted Maki’s polite behavior with a short thankful smile and turned her attention to the paved driveway and various plants and trees around the fenced yard.

“Why’re you so fixated on this? It’s just a house,” Maki sighed and Nico frowned at the faint but clear annoyance in her voice.

“It’s a house I’ve never seen before and I’m not exactly rich you know,” Nico grumbled and reluctantly stalked toward the front door to get away from the other woman.

“Wait,” Nico felt Maki’s fingers around her wrist and found herself instinctively turning toward her with one foot on the stone porch.

Maki’s purple gaze flickered away from her and she turned her head away from her with the beginning of a pink flush overtaking her ears and cheeks. “Um…” Nico watched as Maki nervously reached up and tugged on her beautiful messy red wavy hair, twirling it around one of her index fingers in what seemed like a nervous habit.

Now that Maki was touching her, Nico could sense the werewolf’s complex emotions, a vivid mix of nervousness, confusion, irritation, and something else she couldn’t quite identify. 

“I’m sorry, I’m just used to this place by now,” Maki finally admitted and Nico felt her eyebrows shoot up on their own accord. Where was the proud Maki from the cafe earlier? The snappy fiery Maki she had seen all day until when she arrived at her apartment.

However before Nico managed to come up with a reply, the facial change had already had an undesired effect on Maki. 

The werewolf released Nico’s wrist like she had been burned and a wolf-like yelp escaped her mouth before she scowled and shoved her free hand into the pocket of her lab coat. “Look whatever,” Maki snapped, her face still turned partially away from Nico, “Umi’s an elite bodyguard who works for the central commerce of supernatural creatures and has protected their greatest asset for I don’t know how many years.” 

Nico slowly nodded, so this was Umi’s place. That made more sense the more she thought about it, but it was still kind of awe-inspiring to be around a house like this one with the knowledge that at least for the current moment, she was free to wander around inside.

“Just stop questioning it and go inside,” Maki snapped Nico from her headspace with a sharp retort, the red-faced very flustered werewolf was now at the front door and pushing it open with her key in her other hand. 

Nico bit her tongue to keep from snapping back at her that she was being rude and unreasonable, but something in the back of her head nudged her to leave it and so she settled on a short glare and walked through the front door with her nose held high. 

The inside was beautiful too, warm and cozy with an expertly designed interior with plenty of color and various wild plants and flowers in pots and on windowsills. 

She guessed Kotori was responsible for most of it as there were hints of other styles here and there but what she imagined the fashion designer doing with her home was the main theme that she was seeing.

Nico could see that the wide sliding doors of the back were open across from her and the back of Nozomi’s purple head at a patio table while the other three were who knows where from what she could see. 

Maki bumped past her, shedding her lab coat and now barefoot, “take off your shoes and don’t bother with slippers,” she explained in a cranky mumble, “socks and shoes aren’t a werewolf thing.” 

Nico rolled her eyes, “of course it’s not,” she deadpanned even as she watched Maki’s retreating form clad in a simple black t-shirt and skinny jeans. That lab cat really did no justice to the werewolf.

Once Maki vanished outside to sit beside Nozomi, Nico took a slow exhale and really looked around as she braced herself against a wall and unzipped the zipped on her beige ankle boots to take them off. 

Okay, so she was in a massive house she’d never thought she’d be in until she made it into the real acting world and it was super neat and clean cut from the outside which made it intimidating. However, the inside shattered that illusion and Nico felt more at ease standing in the entryway of a beautifully large but well lived in home. 

It was a little messy, with an impressive amount of folded laundry sitting neatly on floor near one of the couches in four mesh bins and on the couch itself; Maki’s lab coat and bookbag were thrown uncaringly onto the microfiber bench in the entryway; two suitcases seemingly partially packed while two others sat empty beside them in the living room; there were a few dishes in the sink and scattered throughout the large kitchen; and there were bookshelves stuffed with various books and a series of wicker organizer drawers beside the back and front doors. 

Nico smiled, it looked like a place well lived in and loved by its inhabitants, and Nico could feel the aura this place gave off. Her magic read the room and came up with the same conclusion as her eyes. This place gave off being a sort of safe haven and a place to really be yourself.

“Nicochi!” Nozomi was turning in her seat to smile at her while Nico could see a redness on Maki’s cheeks and ears, “we’re all out here!”

“Yeah yeah,” Nico called back, “I’m coming, keep your hair on Nozomi!” She nudged her boots into a line beside the door and wandered toward Nozomi as the future-scryer turned back around in her seat. 

There was something else in the air here as well, something… wild, untamed. She could sense it, but her nose was telling her that she could smell it as well. She could smell cinnamon, the fresh air from outside, an earthy mix of the plants around, and… an almost unnoticeable amount of what smelled like oak wood mixed with a rich vanilla. How did any of that contribute to something untamed and almost dangerous? Either way, it had to be from the werewolves, because otherwise she had no clue.

“Okay, I’m here now, happy?” Nico drawled as she shook off her confusion about the scents and dropped down in the chair between Maki and Nozomi. 

Maki shifted a little in her seat and didn’t look at her but also didn’t snap at her.

“Welcome to the back house,” Nozomi smiled and Nico rolled her eyes but smiled back at her.

“This place is gigantic Nozomi,” Nico told her flatly, “why do you live here?”

Nozomi chuckled to Nico’s confusion, “Nicochi, this is a pack house. Werewolves meet up here and come here for safety if something happens so it should be rather large, correct?”

“Ugh, when you put it that way it’s logical,” Nico groaned and crossed her arms over her chest before a wolf-like yelp and loud snarl startled her, “Aak!”

“Sounds like Rin went too far,” Maki sighed with a roll of her eyes.

Nozomi merely hummed in agreement.

Nico could now hear faint laughter to accompany the animal sounds and now she was very confused.

 _What?_ Nico turned in her chair toward the direction Nozomi was facing only to see nothing but green grass and bushes. “What’re you two talking about-”

A massive female ginger wolf came bursting out of the bush toward them followed by a blonde wolf of the same size and a running Kotori laughing. 

Kotori’s long ash-blonde hair was braided in a neat fishtail and she was definitely wearing a shirt of Umi's, seeing how the blue t-shirt was at least a size too big for her, with a thin belt cinching it at the waist. It was paired with black leggings beneath short denim shorts and white and green fuzzy socks inside running shoes. A clearly comfortable but decently fashionable outfit that she could clearly run like hell in.

After all, how the hell was the angel keeping up with a wolf almost half her size? The wolf stood at probably just below Kotori hips so how wasn’t she falling behind?

The ginger wolf yipped and skidded past the table while Nico ducked and the blonde wolf nimbly swerved around the table, her tail brushing lightly against Nozomi’s legs as she ran. Then, the ash-blonde angel, who Nico had believed to be very soft spoken and quiet, daringly pushed herself off the ground. Her white wings unfolding at her back just a few feet, enough to give her a few brief seconds of air time over the table and the three people sitting there. Before she hit the ground running. 

_What the hell?!_ Nico gawked, staring at the angel’s wings poking just barely through carefully crafted slits in the back of her shirt that she hadn’t ever seen before. Was that how her wings had been folded loosely at her back at the campus and were hidden in the cafe?

“Uumii stopp!” Kotori sprinted toward the other side of the massive fenced yard toward the small pool and a gate while the blonde wolf merely darted off inside and the ginger wolf ran through another set of bushes.

There wasn’t a verbal response rather there was a bigger crash and the biggest distinctly male wolf Nico had ever seen came crashing through the series of bushes. It was easily over four feet tall and longer than Umi was tall with unnatural royal blue fur and had a white diamond between it’s dark amber eyes that were the same shade as Umi’s.

It charged after Kotori, running toward the running angel with a loud howl and heavy pounding footsteps that Nico could feel briefly through the ground when it ran past her.

Was that… Umi? But the werewolf was a girl right? And so was her wolf-dog when she had supposedly touched her leg with her nose?

Kotori meanwhile broke into a sprint, “No!” she shrieked with laughter as Umi, or what Nico assumed was Umi, ran toward her, inching closer and closer to the sprinting angel-mage. 

Kotori’s wings unfurled, white wings flaring out and catching air as her feet hit the pavement surrounding the pool and Nico watched with wide eyes, staring as the angel’s wings flapped once as she pulled her feet up, the wolf playfully attempting to grab her by the foot. “Hey! Wings aren’t cheating Umi-chan!” Kotori swatted the wolf’s nose with one of her hands when it jumped up again and twisted so she was higher up and over the pool with mischief twinkling in her eyes.

Nico then watched, amusement bubbling through her body as she watched the massive wolf wiggle it’s butt while in a low crouch almost like a cat before it’s muscles rippled through it’s pelt as it leaped up into the air.

Kotori’s soft golden eyes widened, “Umi-chan wait!” She threw out her arms while rattling off a protection spell, “Ασπίδες ενέργειας προστατεύουν το σώμα μου από βλάβες!” 

Nico understood the greek without thinking, the language being the base language of creation magic which was what her own magic type fell under. The spell itself was a high intensity ward spell, drawing consecrated light around the body to form a type of damage prevention ward.

Sure enough a pale green glow enveloped Kotori’s body just as the massive wolf collided with her and knocked her down into the pool with her with what was easily a twelve foot tall splash. 

“What, did I just watch?” Nico couldn’t help but ask blankly as she stared at the pool while Maki chuckled and Nozomi began to laugh, another voice joining in as they came back outside, revealing it to be Eli.

“Meet Kotori Minami,” Eli chuckled and Nico shot her an unamused look.

“I already met her, stupid,” Nico deadpanned, “though clearly I may need to get my eyes checked.”

“No,” Maki spoke up, her voice cranky but smooth and mostly impassive like usual, “you met Kotori on guard, out in public.”

Eli nodded as Kotori broke the surface of the pool on her back. “This?” she gestured to the ash blonde angel who’s hair was plastered to her face from the water.

Kotori, wing’s were functioning as floatation devices while she had a massive wolf partially on top of her, a faint green glow showing up here and there from her wards. The ash blonde turned her head and spit out a mouthful of water. Mixed amusement twinkling in her eyes as she turned her head toward the wolf that was making her sink up to just before her shoulders from its weight and flinched when it shook the water from it's lion sized head. “Now how am I supposed to make the sun set, huh Umi-chan?” The angel asked playfully as her hands shot out from the water to playfully ruffle and cause all of it’s wet fur to goofily stick up.

The wolf let her for a moment before it licked her nose with the tip of it’s tongue, then paused.

Kotori’s eyes widened again and she held up a finger in front of the massive animal’s nose, “Umi-chan, don’t even think about it…” The amusement in her eyes though broke through her sharp seriousness and the wolf took advantage of that.

It lunged forward and began to rapidly drag it’s massive tongue all over her face almost like a dog licked it’s owner.

“Ew!” Kotori squealed and wrestled to overpower and push away the massive wolf’s head, “Umi-chan that’s disgusting!” laughter was bubbling up into her high-pitched voice as she squealed and tried to shy away from the animal, “stooop it!”

“This is the side of Kotori Minami the general public doesn’t get to see,” Eli finished.

There was a part of Nico that suddenly felt very honored to have this opportunity. Even if she was watching the liaison be practically licked to death in a pool by a very playful wolf the size of an african lion that freaked Nico out just a little.

“Well I’m not sure how I feel about having another person as mischievous as Nozomi around,” Nico eventually settled on deadpanning and brought laughter from the beta and future scryer and the tiniest of smirks from Maki.

“Kotori likes to tease,” Eli admitted, “but most of that goes toward Umi. She’s still really sweet just like Nozomi.”

Nico snorted, “sweet? Gentle? I don’t know what you get those descriptions of Nozomi Eli, but those are once in a blue moon descriptions. Most of the time she’s meddling or being really nosy,” she grumbled.

She was relieved though, she didn’t know how she was going to handle another person like Nozomi for a friend and unfortunately, probably a packmate. Seeing how she was getting dragged into a life with werewolves without having much of a say in it thanks to destiny.

Maki spoke up, “don’t worry about Kotori, Nico, she’s just more playful and teases Umi about eighty-five percent of the time. That woman is so sweet and gentle to the point of it being nauseating and she doesn’t have a nosy nor harm seeking bone in her body. This is her way of getting Umi to decompress after working all day. What you saw in the cafe is relatively how she acts besides how affectionate she is and her teases.”

“What’re you guys talking about?” Kotori’s breathless voice chirped curiously and Nico jumped, having been so focused on her tablemates to have completely missed the dripping angel’s arrival. Half of Kotori’s “feathers” on the top of her head were sticking up in the air from Umi’s tongue, her other half were flat from how she was currently running her fingers through them and while the rest of her was soaked besides her white wings. Which were dry as Nico watched her fold them against her back and hidden from sight behind her back .

“You,” Nozomi smiled warmly at the ash-blonde and Nico shot her a betraying glare, “Nicochi was curious about you, Kotori.”

“Ah,” Kotori giggled and Nico saw her golden eyes glow with the telltale sign of magic before all at once the angel was perfectly dry and her eyes were back to their earlier droopy gentle golden. 

Nico could detect strong traces of magic in the air surrounding the skilled angel-mage hybrid, a scent similar to sunlight tickling her magic-sensitive nose in particular. Judging by how she hadn’t moved much nor gave a verbal annotation, Nico could accurately guess that the angel-mage was as strong as the rumors suggested and was perhaps even stronger than them.

Kotori took a seat across from Nico and smiled gently at her, the same kind of smile Nico had received multiple times from her throughout the day. “You can ask me questions you know,” she affirmed, “I’m not going to get upset or anything.”

Nico shrugged and leaned back in her chair. “I’d rather just move on with this conversation right now, after all aren’t I supposed to be watching you make the sun go down?”

Kotori’s golden eyes perked up and her smile changed to be a little more on the sheepish side, “oh, right, I forgot I haven’t done that yet… I’ll do that once Umi-chan comes back out here~” She hummed.

_I’m coming._

The phrase pierced through Nico’s skull and the mage curled inward on herself when her head practically exploded in pain at the ringing. Immediately outweighing the disbelief of hearing someone speak in her head and not out loud.

Her brain was in endless agony, working itself into circles in it’s fight to combat the ringing bouncing through her skull and Nico clenched her teeth, one of her hands instinctively rising to touch her forehead.

She vaguely felt Nozomi touch her arm with concern in her voice, “relax Nicochi, you’re… Umi…. broadcasting to… pack…” 

The words faded in and out as the pain increased along with the insessessent ringing in Nico’s ears.

Nico winced at the ringing changed to increasingly loud static that just got louder and louder in volume, giving her a splitting migraine that felt like it went on for hours.

“...help...you have to… something…”

Then the pads of someone’s fingertips brushed over her knee before a warm hand rested on it. A calm reassurance oozed from the gesture and made it through the blinding static in her skull and she clung desperately to it, seizing it with her magic and feeling the emotion in the gesture flood her panicked system like a tidal wave as a slightly raspy voice pierced through the static with only a few words.

“Breathe, it’s alright,” the voice was like a breath of fresh air and Nico instinctively took a deep breath. The action filling her burning lungs with the oxygen she hadn’t realized she had needed.

It was Maki, the annoying, easily flustered, clumsy, maddening werewolf was talking to her. Not just talking, she was actively helping her. 

“Keep breathing slow deep breaths, it’s alright…”

The static in Nico’s head broke, it’s hold on her breaking under Maki’s needed interference and Nico’s eyes shot open, vision unfocused as her brain tried to catch up with the rest of the world around her.

“Are you okay Nico-chan?” Maki’s voice wasn’t angry like it had been earlier, rather now it was smooth with it’s usual light rasp with concern weighing a little heavily on the almost musical voices of hers.

Nico dimly registered the honorific as she blinked and tried to refocus on the world swimming around her as her brain caught up and her vision cleared up. Only to freeze up at the sight of Maki’s pretty face a mere half a foot away from hers. She felt her ears flush red at the sharp expression of concern on the younger woman’s face, this being the most emotion she had seen on the redhead’s face so far. “W-what?”

Maki’s purple eyes narrowed from where she was sitting on the table in front of Nico, wait, hadn’t she been sitting in the chair beside her that Kotori was now half kneeling in?

The silver of the moon swirled in the deep purple of Maki’s eyes as she studied her for a few moments, “are you okay Nico?” Before Nico felt a light squeeze on her fingers and she inhaled sharply as it all clicked and she jerked her gaze down at her lap.

The back of Maki’s hand rested lightly on Nico’s right knee, her slender fingers trapped by Nico’s smaller ones and Nico hadn’t realized that instead of just seizing the calm emotion to drawn on with her magic, she had literally grabbed Maki’s hand and was still had a tight grip on her warm fingers.

“What’re you doing?” Nico snapped in her fumble to get away from her and yanked her hand back with enough force that she would’ve tipped her chair over were it not for Maki’s quick reflexes and catching one of the chair legs between crossed ankles.

Maki frowned, all concern wiped from her face as Nico felt someone else’s hands on the back of her chair. Before they gently pushed her forward till all four legs of her chair were on the floor of the back patio. 

“I was protecting you,” Maki deadpanned and Nico watched her not bother to move from the table.

“First, get off the table, that’s terrible etiquette,” Nico snapped, her embarrassment fueling her harshness, “and second, what the hell just happened?”

Maki’s frown turned into a scowl, “you could say thank you,” she snapped back but reluctantly got off the table and moved toward Kotori. She seemed to open her mouth to continue her rebuttal, but a look from the ash-blonde Nico didn’t really catch made her simply clamp her mouth shut and set her jaw in irritation.

“Don’t get mad at Maki,” Kotori quickly spoke up, the ash-blonde in Nico’s peripheral vision even as she let go of the chair and got up from her own, giving it up to Maki. “She was just protecting you from the telepathy.”

“Telepathy?” Nico stared at the ash-blonde as she made her way around the table to sit across from her again, “you mean every time you guys do the whole telepathic crap you feel like your brain explodes and you give each other migraines?”

“What? No,” Eli appeared offended at the thought, “telepathy isn’t painful-”

“Well sorry blondie,” Nico shot her a look of disbelief, “but I just experienced the most powerful migraine I’ve ever had and I even still have a headache from that shit.”

Kotori broke in again, irritating Nico in the process because what the hell? Why was the annoying angel not letting her get any steam off when she could practically feel it coming out of her ears?! 

“Telepathy isn’t painful once your bonded to a werewolf,” Kotori explained a little hastily and Nozomi nodded in agreement, “and only after your mind doesn’t believe you’re being attacked.”

“Excuse me? Someone literally just assaulted my brain!” Nico retorted at the angel, “my mind is private you know!”

“That’s why it was painful,” Maki broke in as she sat back down, speaking at a deadpan and holding up a hand toward Kotori to stop her from speaking. “Someone’s more insecure than she says she is.”

“Maki-” Nozomi gasped and Nico saw Kotori’s eyes widen, but the small mage didn’t care as she saw red.

“Want to say that again Nishikino?” The werewolf’s last name popped into Nico’s head from nowhere as she snarled and lunged, grabbing the redhead by the collar with a sneer.

Maki’s purple eyes looked smugly back at her, “say what? That you’re insecure? Or that the telepathy was painful?”

“I’m not insecure,” Nico snarled, she wasn’t, she was just mentally assaulted and this… this… animal of a human insisted that she was underconfident?! “My mind’s private you asshole! Maybe you don’t understand that kind of privacy, but not everyone in the world’s just fine with people talking through and being able to view their thoughts!”

“Umi wouldn’t view your thoughts, only Kotori’s able to get a general read on every pack member’s general thought subject and emotions,” Maki deadpanned and Nico could feel the magic in her palms making the fabric in her hands stiff and unmalleable due to minor slips in her control of her time magic.

“Like that’s any better!” Nico spat but with less heat than earlier. “I would appreciate a warning before someone just jams their voice into my head! Even if a certain redhead in front of me wouldn’t care either way!”

The knowledge that her mind was still private, and her own, with the sneaking suspicion that it was only just for now, had doused most of the flames that consisted of her ange.

“W-what?” She asked as Maki’s expression changed and she didn’t reply.

Maki’s expression softened into a more curious and just slightly warm expression even as she lightly knocked Nico’s slackened grip away from her shirt, “feel better?”

“What?” Nico frowned and dropped moodily back into her chair, “what’re you talking about?”

“You looked angry,” Maki shrugged half-impassively then changed the subject, much to Nico’s mixed confusion and odd appreciation. “Kotori,” she glanced at her wristwatch, “the sun should be down by now…”

Kotori jumped, the intense confusion and curiosity on the angel’s face faltered. “Oh, sorry! Umi-chan!” She called and Nico stared at the redhead.

“Seriously? How long was I out?”

When Maki ignored her and stayed focused on Kotori as Umi reemerged putting her hair up, Nico whirled around toward Nozomi.

“Nozomi how long was I out?!”

Nico didn’t miss the glance at Umi and Kotori Nozomi gave before she responded, but she merely filed it away for later as Nozomi responded to the question.

“Close to half-an-hour Nicochi,” Nozomi admitted softly, “it took Maki thirty-minutes to break through the telepathy buzz so it’s almost eight.”

Eight? It was almost eight PM?! 

Nico stared at them for a few seconds, could her day get any more chaotic than it already had?

First she had met Kotori Minami of all people after her drama class; then met the adorable but emotionally complicated werewolf who was her soul-mate of all people; then the crazy people of the redhead’s pack; learned Kotori was way more of a mischief maker than she appeared; and had her own skull attacked by a telepathic prod from a werewolf.

If Nico wasn’t as resilient as she was, she doubted she would’ve survived today without passing out and believing it was a dream. However, she was this resilient and this was her reality now. A reality intertwined with the strangest creature of them all, werewolves.

“Hold up, is this how chaotic a normal day is for you guys?” Nico couldn’t help but ask with a minor groan. “Because I don’t know about you, but this was and still has been the craziness day of my entire life.”

Something nagged at her she would regret saying that even as the pack of supernaturals around her laughed and smiled at her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haaaate writing beginningiiings XD  
> I literally have 35,000 words of just stuff written for this AU and alas, I can use straight-up nothing XD I mean I’m glad it helps me work out the inner mechanics of werewolves here, but otherwise, I just get to groan and drag my feet into continuing to write the beginning of the story…


	4. Nozomi, Washi Washi Is Not Allowed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico had hoped to never witness Nozomi's washi-washi technique ever again. However luck isn't in her favor when she's woken up at two am to the scream of a voice she had never expected to be able to reach that volume.  
> And of course, there's more to Kotori's life than meets the public eye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, some advancements!

Nico decided from the moment her eyes opened, that it was just way too early. 

However it was hard to sleep when her sleep had been pierced through by a loud high pitched squeal mixed with a shriek. Just by the almost sing-song high pitched voice that the ungodly shriek belonged to, Nico could accurately guess that it was from Kotori.

Exactly what happened to produce the sound from the ash-blonde, the raven-haired mage didn’t know. However it made her torn between being angry at being woken up and mildly surprised that the soft spoken angel could even make that volume of a noise.

Nico nestled deeper into the blankets and pulled them up to her chin as the shriek continued. Pushing her nose into the soft fabric and stubbornly refusing to get up at least for the time being. It was warm beneath the blankets of one of the guest rooms she was staying in right now, the warmth and gentle weight comforting to her currently cranky mood. 

What time it was didn’t matter, not when her phone hadn’t gone off yet and there was zero sun poking out through the curtain clad windows of the room. 

However, the resolve only lasted a second. After all, it would be more satisfying to snap at her housemates right?

Nico threw off her blankets in a dramatic fashion and grumbled as she slid off the bed all while her attention was on possibly setting the irritating werewolves, that no doubt were involved, on fire.

Although truthfully the only reason Nico got up was because of the sweet and fluffy smell of pancakes that had tickled her nose and finally registered in her brain. Sure, she loved to cook and was most definitely the best cook in the universe, cooking champions be damned, but no matter how much she loved to cook, Nico loved to eat just as much.

Nico could guess that the person responsible for the scent from heaven knew what they were doing in the kitchen as she headed out of the room and down the stairs. She held a ponytail holder between her teeth as she pulled rebellious and messy inky black hair back into a ponytail that matched her lazy mood.

As she made her way down the stairs her eyes focused on an incident that made her pause. Focusing in particular on a purple headed future scryer who currently had a faceful of angel wings while the wings’ owners stood frozen in the scryer’s tight hold. 

Oh good grief, that definitely explained the shrieking squeal Nico had heard.

Nico rolled her eyes and continued to make her way down toward them. She had hoped to never see that particular form of punishment and teasing from Nozomi again and yet, here she was. Watching a poor bird be teasingly assaulted by the future scryer that was Nico’s best friend from childhood.

Kotori, for her chagrin, was clearly unused to having a ‘washi washi’ as Nozomi called it, done on her if the smashing of Nozomi’s face with her wings were anything to go by. The poor woman looked like a spoked bird standing there frozen with her arms held up, her wings unfolded against Nozomi’s face, and probably the widest eyes Nico had ever seen from anyone Nozomi had done that to.

“Good morning Nicochi!” Nozomi’s voice was bubbly and playful despite being muffled by the feathers pressed against her face, “sleep well?”

“It’s two am you asshole,” Nico deadpanned as she approached them, “and I’m woken up by the return of your ‘washi washi’ being done on Kotori. I wasn’t aware someone so soft spoken had the vocal cords to shriek so loud it woke me up from clear upstairs.”

“Neither was I,” a groggy voice sounded from behind Nico and the ravenette jumped and whirled around.

Maki was standing there, red hair in beautiful chaotic disarray with groggy half closed amethyst colored eyes. The redhead was lazily wearing a wrinkled hoodie she had clearly just shoved on over her head and running shorts. However what mainly got Nico’s attention was the difference in her ears. Rather than the usual human ears all humans had, there was a pair of soft, fluffy, delicate wolf ears drooping in sleep on the top of Maki’s head that matched her red velvet colored hair. 

“What did Kotori do to deserve that anyway?”

What gods blessed Maki with being always so eye catching and stunning?! Because while Maki likely enjoyed it, it definitely wasn’t good for Nico’s heart as it jumped and she dry swallowed.

“She needed help waking up completely,” Nozomi hummed mischievously before Kotori gave an impulsive squeal as Nozomi gave her a squeeze.

Maki’s attractively stunning just woken up look aside, Nico’s focus was now back on Nozomi despite the warmth she could feel on her face.

“Nozomi! Let me go!” Kotori wriggled in Nozomi’s hold in an attempt to get free of the purple haired woman’s hold.

“Huh, I never realized how much you have here Kotori,” Nozomi chuckled, “I bet Umi enjoys that a lot huh?” 

Kotori squealed at another short squeeze and struggled in Nozomi’s hold, golden eyes now even wider with mortification. “We d-don’t do any of that Nozomi!”

Nico gave her an odd look, one of the few things she remembered about werewolves from back in high school, mainly because it had been so embarrassing and awkward to hear at the time, was how high of a libido most of them had and that alphas were usually insatiable. It had been told to her class as a warning about getting involved with a werewolf.

So the following shriek from Kotori that told Nico that Nozomi agreed with her skepticism wasn’t a surprise.

“That’s a lie Kotori,” Maki deadpanned, much to Nico’s surprise.

“Do I need to mention that time where-” Nozomi began.

“No!” Kotori’s voice nearly broke from the pitch she hit with the hasty shout to cut Nozomi off, “just let mee go!” She struggled hard in Nozomi’s hold.

Nozomi laughed, “tell Nico the truth then Kotori, then I’ll let you go!”

“No…” Kotori whimpered and Nico would have to be blind to miss the scarlet red that had spread over the angel’s freckled cheeks and ears. However the next sound that came out of Kotori’s mouth surprised her. 

Kotori made a whimpering bark that matched exactly to what Nico vaguely remembered the werewolves’ wolfish sounding like when Nozomi squeezed her again.

Nico’s eyes widened. 

The angel-mage was speaking in wolfish. Weren’t only werewolves supposed to be able to speak in that?

Maki’s cheeks turned red and the red haired werewolf covered her face as she took a surprised step back. Her cheeks and ears turned darker and dark while Kotori gave a wolfish pleading whine and struggled some more. 

The front door flew open with a bang that rattled the door’s hinges and Nico jumped about a foot into the air.

“What the-” heat gathered on Nico’s fingers and palm, her skin taking on a heat infused red color in instinctive self defense.

Nozomi instantly released Kotori and took a step to the left while the angel was dropped unceremoniously onto her butt. The amusement mixed with surprise confused Nico, what was she so amused about?

Then the now closed front door glowed blue before with something akin to a gunshot that made Nico flinch; a black blur appeared a foot from the ground mid leap in the form of a timber wolf sized black female wolf.

Kotori’s eyes widened, “No! Umi slow down or you’ll-” the wolf instantly put on the brakes and fell into a sitting position, amber eyes widening and paws churning to go backwards as she shot toward Kotori with more speed than intended.

Before Kotori could finish speaking, all ninety pounds, Nico guessed, of black wolf collided with her and thereby the floor when Kotori fell onto her back, with a loud thud. 

Feathers fluttered briefly through the air as the pair of them slid across the floor and Nico squeezed her eyes shut just before they slammed into the set dining table and chairs. The table of which teetered dangerously for a precious second before it fell and broke just like the chairs had. 

Nico cringed at the shattering china and splitting wood and cautiously opened her eyes to blink in surprise.

Sure, the table was completely destroyed, but Nico couldn’t really see Kotori or the wolf that had run into her. Rather all she could see was a set of impressively massive jet black wings domed around something, Kotori’s socked feet and ankles, and another pair of slender legs from the knee down that Nico could guess were Umi’s.

The black wings shook then promptly flopped out to the sides to rest against the floor along with their owner’s arms and the dazed lolling of a dark blue haired head.

Kotori was sprawled over top of Umi and the angel’s face was pressed into Umi’s collarbones with her wings tucked into her shirt against her back. When Kotori got back from her trip Nico really needed to ask her how her wings could just vanish into thin air or fold small enough to hide in her shirt. Which one was the actual truth she didn’t know just yet.

“Good grief,” Nico grumbled after she got over the shock of the last thirty seconds, “is this seriously normal? This chaos is just ridiculous.”

“This isn’t normal,” Maki deadpanned, apparently the only one really unfazed by the events. Nico could smell her as she got close to her, she was almost minty, like a candy cane, minty and cool with something like a breath of fresh forest air. “I haven’t seen Nozomi’s whole grabby hands punishment in years and Umi only freaked out because of Kotori’s emotional levels.” Purple eyes focused on Nico, “normally Kotori has greater emotional control, just not when her chest is being assaulted apparently.”

“Then why did _you_ ,” Nico avoided looking at Maki and focused on Nozomi, well aware that she may have a hard time focusing if she didn’t, “have to bring it back all of the sudden Nozomi?”

“I was just teasing, I figured I’d do it for old time’s sake Nicochi,” Nozomi chuckled with a mildly mysterious smile. However Nico saw the friendly sincerity hidden behind the natural front in her old friend’s green eyes and so she merely sighed. At this point telling Nozomi off wasn’t worth the energy Nico would have to expend when it was two-am, she had an annoyingly gorgeous redhead standing to her left, and there was a werewolf and an angel on the floor around the remains of a dining room table. 

“Old time’s sake aside, Nozomi,” Nico sighed in a deadpan, “I never want to see, or feel! that hell of a punishment ever again.” She tilted and turned her head toward Maki, “Maki, tell Eli to keep Nozomi’s gropey hands away from someone’s chest and to ban the washi-washi technique for good.”

Maki’s striking purple hued eyes made contact with hers and Nico’s heart jumped briefly at the smirk that seemed to just belong there on the werewolf’s face before she even spoke up. “Glady,” Maki drawled and Nico found the smirk to be rather infectious as her own lips pulled up into the cheekiest of smirks. 

They were actually getting along. 

Maki wasn’t biting Nico’s head off, overreacting, or snapping at her through being a flustered mess, she was getting along with her and Nico found a smile threatening to show itself on her face and through her lips. 

Maybe Maki Nishikino wasn’t so bad, when she wasn’t acting like a haughty princess anyway. 

Nico may have then had her vision dragged away from Maki at Kotori’s worried squeal of, “Umi-chan!” but her attention remained on her discovery about Maki. 

After all, maybe, if Maki would act like this more Nico could find herself being okay with being stuck for life with an intelligent, sarcastic, reserved, mildly clumsy werewolf.

But first... 

“If your body guard breaks from a mere table Kotori I think you need a new body guard.”

Nico had a table to fix so she could finally get to taste those pancakes that were the main reason why she was originally here right now anyway.

“Now move out of Nico’s way, breakfast is calling her name and table or not, those pancakes have met their master.” Nico rolled her eyes at the angel testing her at least dazed if not concussed alpha mate’s ability to track movement with her eyes with Kotori’s fingers and headed over toward them, “doesn’t the fluffy redhead over there study medicine or something?” Nico glanced back at Maki over her shoulder, “you study medicine right Maki?”

Maki to Nico’s surprise merely nodded with mild amusement on her face, “yeah.” 

“No speaking for you Nozomi,” Nico quickly predicted her friend being about to speak up, “and Umi get your butt off the floor so I can fix the table.”

“What, you some kind of handy-man now Nico?” Maki asked as Umi shifted forms into a wolf dog that instantly wobbled from side to side balance-wise and Kotori worriedly followed her as she moved away.

Maki’s behavior, while rather nice, was also rather confusing to Nico. However, she’d deal with wondering about it later as nothing could break her focus on finally getting something out of coming down here besides a bout of Maki sourced irritation and confusion.

“Sure,” Nico rolled her eyes before she held her hand out stretched with her palms out facing the broken remains of the table and the area where it had once stood. “But only if music and magic makes Nico one,” she shrugged before narrowing her eyes. 

Magic surged through Nico’s veins, collecting at her fingertips in an energy that was just begging to be released. So, in perfect greek, as reversing time on isolated objects was rather difficult, Nico’s lips parted and she sang a short phrase. The music easily provided her with extra control over the complex spell she wouldn’t have had otherwise.

The table glowed a soft pink for a mere moment and the faint symbol of an hourglass being turned over backwards in the air appeared, before it shattered into glowing particles and vanished. The pieces to the broken table and chairs then began to fly back together in the exact way they had broken apart till after a few moments, the dining room furniture had been returned back to normal.

Nico looked over at them all and struck a smug pose with a hand on her hip and a smirk, “clearly Kotori doesn’t use a lot of magic around you lot.”

* * *

After so many years of traveling under Umi’s belt, Kotori knew she should’ve been surprised at just how bad Umi was with jetlag, but she wasn’t. 

Even if the bluenette had been acting as stiff, aware, and alert as usual, Kotori just knew Umi would crash for power nap once they arrived at the hotel, especially when Eli was with them. She and Umi trusted Eli with their lives, a trust slowly hard earned over the years starting from their chaotic first meeting, and she and Maki were the only two people the alpha werewolf trusted to protect Kotori in her absence.

 _Umi-chan, you’re really jetlagged, are you okay?_ The ash-blonde softly prodded her mate telepathically, golden eyes focused softly with a hint of intensiveness on the blue haired alpha beside her as she saw Umi’s head droop just a tiny bit.

Umi cleared her throat and straightened up completely in the car’s seat. Sitting stiffly and straightening her tie restlessly while their friends dozed in the seat in front of them. _My apologizes,_ she apologized a little stiffer than Kotori knew she meant to, and was proven correct when Umi’s tone softened. _I will be alright Kotori, it’s merely too warm in here. Once I get moving again I won’t be so drowsy._

 _I know,_ Kotori hummed, _but that wasn’t what I was asking,_ she pointed out, fingers going to the diamond studded band on her left hand that was more for human benefit than her own besides for a fidget device, _you’re more tired than usual._

 _Well I wonder why,_ Umi stated dryly and the corners of Kotori’s lips instinctively pulled up into the edges of a smile as the werewolf side-eyed her without changing expressions. _Between all of the transformations yesterday, meeting a mage Maki’s clearly on the fence about, you, and the events of this morning; yesterday and this morning was a long day and our flight was at four am._

 _You could never prove I had anything to do with it Umi-chan,_ Kotori hummed, her cheeky mischief bleeding over in her mental tone.

 _Perhaps,_ Umi conceded, _with no proof besides my own memory I can’t. Does not mean I won’t accuse you in this case, my dear._

Kotori didn’t let any more of their conversation appear on her face, keeping the minute gentle smile and not letting it widen at their mutual telepathic conversation. Even in a car with tinted windows and nobody but the driver and driver’s assistant, the public masks had to stay on. 

Well just for her and Umi anyways, Nozomi and Eli’s relationship wasn’t a closely guarded secret. There were days where Kotori wanted more than anything to be able to be openly affectionate with her furry bluenette beyond just friends and co-workers. However, if her relationship with Umi was released to anyone else there was a higher and higher chance of the bluenette being forced to retire as her bodyguard and Kotori would be forced to trust some stranger to protect her.

 _I would follow you around anyway,_ Umi chuckled and Kotori smashed down a grin, _it’s not as though I need to be paid to keep you safe Kotori._

Kotori almost gave a snort as the memory of what had happened the last time Umi had been given a day off and told to find somewhere else, crossed her mind. _I know,_ she hummed to the alpha as her golden eyes strayed to the many buildings and shrubbery that passed the windows of the car they were in. _And I wouldn’t have it any other way Umi-chan,_ laughter bubbled over into her mental voice, _neither would mom for that matter._

Umi’s expression didn’t change but Kotori caught the briefest of glances of Umi’s right canine poking out from under her lip in a microscopic toothy wolf-like smirk that only she would be able to see before it vanished. _Your mother would certainly be furious if people pressured the both of you to get a new guard._

 _Yeah, and it would be stupid to replace someone who’s been guarding me for pretty much my entire life,_ Kotori pointed out, _okay so I’m very close to them and I have a relationship with them, but it’s been how many years? Nine? Ten? And Mama says you’re terrifyingly professional about your job._ She looked back down at her hands, silently studying the ring on her finger.

Kotori couldn’t see anything on Umi’s face due to her robotically stiff public mask, but in times like this she had a deeper appreciation than most for being able to feel some of her mate’s emotions. Where she could feel the gentle love and mental warmth oozing through their mental bond right now and knew the mask would drop when they reached their destination just like it usually did. 

_Well of course,_ Umi spoke, aware of but not getting involved in Kotori’s mild musings, _people misunderstand the power of emotional connections. I protect you as my charge with my life for my job, but I protect you with my heart as my friend, and with my entire being as my mate._

If Kotori hadn’t been used to the honest oftentimes rather romantic sounding comments Umi made, she would’ve turned at least a little red like she would’ve back when they were teenagers. 

Instead…

 _I love you Umi-chan,_ Kotori replied simply and made sure to keep her expression level and mostly unchanged.

… she remained calm, well, on the outside anyway. She knew Umi could no doubt instantly pick up on her melted heart simply by how Umi’s nose gave the faintest of twitches. 

However, Umi being Umi, wisely didn’t comment on her emotional state in the present situation and company, and merely responded in turn in a heartfelt tone.

 _I love you too my little bird._ The werewolf hummed and Kotori inwardly smiled as they sat in comfortable silence. 

She had heard Umi say those words about a thousand times over the years and yet she treasured each time they left those beautiful peach colored lips.

_How’s your concussion Umi?_

A telepathic prod from Eli broke the companionable silence and Kotori’s attention swiveled toward their golden blonde friend and packmate.

Kotori saw Umi straighten up a little more in her seat and adjust the edges of her sleeves in a professional manner as she replied, _it’s not a concussion Eli, I merely bumped my head._

Kotori worked hard to keep her expression straight and not give the bluenette a concerned glare of sorts, but didn’t comment, leaving it up to Eli.

Eli raised an eyebrow at Kotori’s mate, _you were wobbling around like a puppy’s first steps Umi. Not to mention Maki even diagnosed you with a concussion._

 _I’m fine Eli,_ Kotori could hear the stubbornness in her mate’s telepathic voice and she stifled a chuckle as Umi continued. _As far as I’m aware there is nothing wrong outside of some mild issues. After all as you are aware, an advanced healing speed is a perk of being a werewolf._

A concussion unfortunately, was one of the few things in werewolves Kotori didn’t dare heal with mage or an angel’s blessing and Umi wouldn’t either. It was too dangerous when the temporary damage to the human brain could change and be more severe when the werewolf shifted forms with the wolf form’s different brain style and tissue. 

Even with the magic of life and light itself at Kotori’s fingertips, there were many things the ash-blonde didn’t dare manipulate nor even dare to touch. Although most of the time it involved werewolves and wereanimals as a whole. What Kotori’s mother had suggested to her as a teenager was very true, that she likely enjoyed studying the finer details in wereanimals than she should’ve as a liaison. 

However it was hard to not be biased when she lived with a trio of them and despite having grown up with one of them, she learned the occasional new thing at least once a week. 

Though by far her favorite discovery was of the low crooning growl Umi started making years ago whenever they were alone and she was really happy. That and finding out her mate’s cat-like problem with laser pointers in the winter months. 

However, learning about Maki’s ability to make a perfect rendition of a song through wolf howling and Eli’s habits of munching on grass when in her wolf form were pretty high up here on Kotori’s list.

A soft telepathic nudge from Umi brought Kotori’s straying mind and attention-span back to reality, even if Kotori would’ve liked to space out like she could’ve as a teenager and completely ignore what was being said during a meeting or long car ride.

Kotori nuzzled her mind against the familiar sturdy one that was her mate’s in gratitude. Because it wouldn’t be good for her to be branded as spacey and lost in her own world, not when they were getting so close in mending some of the broken bridges between races. The main project she had been doing for close to eleven years was finally reaching the point where she could be confident about the results.

When Kotori blinked, her senses focused properly on the world around her, it didn’t take long to realized that Umi was talking aloud in English.

“... understood,” Umi had a simple cell phone held to her ear, her rather bland black smartphone that was just for work pressed up against one of her fair skinned ears. The wireless earpiece usually in her ear dangled uselessly by the howling wolf of an ear cuff Miss. Minami, Kotori’s mother, had gifted her back when she turned eighteen. “May the meeting go well, call or request my assistance by ear whenever you require it ma’am.”

Kotori watched out of the corner of her eye, keeping her eyes focused on the window beside her rather than looking over at Umi properly and giving away where her attention span really was. 

Umi gave a mild nod, “of course. I will alert you and the rest of the guard team when we arrive.”

Kotori never got bored of watching Umi work. Umi was just so crisply professional, following nearly every stereo-type for a serious bodyguard and it was fascinating to see just how different her ‘work’ and ‘home’ modes were even if she had seen them thousands of times each.

A sharp inhale of breath and a jolt from Nozomi’s body made Kotori almost jump out of her skin. It took intense mental prowess to keep her squeak from escaping her lips and nose and the warmth off of her face from her earlier line of thinking. After all, Nozomi was known for poking through the current thought lines of her close friends. 

Kotori would never recover from that embarrassment, especially after this morning.

 _Umi, Kotori!_ The words pierced through the pack link like a knife. 

Kotori felt the car slow to a stop and right away she knew something was up.. 

They weren’t at the destination just yet and that combined with Nozomi’s outburst was enough to send danger bells ringing through the angel-mage’s head. Not to mention this car wasn’t provided by her mother’s company, rather this was a car provided by the supernatural leaders here. So it was just another unusual variable that Kotori wasn’t exactly prepared for right now.

Umi didn’t visibly tense, but Kotori saw the werewolf’s hand slip beneath her jacket to the stun pistol concealed beneath her sleek dark blue suit jacket. 

_What did you see, Nozomi?_ Umi’s voice was cold and direct. From personal experience Kotori knew it was Umi’s “protection mode,” where all of her focus went to protecting Kotori and everyone around the liaison angel. 

_I’ll show you._

Kotori felt the inkling of someone’s mind pressing against Umi’s, Kotori have to hide a frown, and felt Umi’s mood shift into what she knew as Umi’s ‘wary protection mode.’

Giving her zero information didn’t really help them that much and not for the first time, Kotori found herself mentally sighing at the inconsistency of Nozomi’s finicky abilities and at being left out. However she was quickly distracted by the telltale click of the safety on a gun from the front seat hitting her heightened ears.

She knew everyone heard it too, even if Umi didn’t visibly react to the sound. 

“Listen up,” a rough low voice spoke up as the divider between them and the driver and passenger seat of the car slid open and Kotori caught a glimpse of the handgun the driver was holding, “and answer when I ask you something. Understood?”

Kotori stayed silent and merely made brief eye-contact with Umi and through years of companionship, Umi responded perfectly.

So barely a millisecond later and Kotori felt the presence of protective wards silently placed around her body. Wards that if were able to have color in this particular moment Kotori knew would be a deep almost navy blue from their caster's magic type.

If Kotori tried to cast her own right now it would only cause more problems as her hands would glow along with her eyes. While Umi, as a learned magic user, had no tells besides her fingers and her hand was still behind her jacket.

“Crystal,” Umi responded flatly to the person threatening them, dark amber eyes surveying the situation while Kotori could see the gears in her brain turning at a calm pace. 

“Good,” the driver shifted and Kotori caught a brief glimpse of his face through the rearview mirror, “Sonoda remove the jacket and the stun weapon, now.”

Kotori kept her eyebrows from furrowing and instead ran a mental checklist of what she had in her bag. Umi preferred if possible to scare people off than actually hurt them, and usually her average wolf form was enough to send people running. So did she have extra clothes for Umi if she shifted forms? Normally she did, but this time Eli and Nozomi were with her so they had split up the needed gear for their blue-haired alpha.

Eli however clearly didn’t like where this was going as Kotori saw the beta-werewolf silently reaching for her seatbelt.

 _Don’t move,_ Umi’s voice echoed through the telepathic link, strong and firm in a telepathic demand. _Stay calm and don’t do anything rash Eli, Nozomi._

Kotori watched as Umi’s fingers went up to the edges of her suit jacket and she calmly placed the stun pistol outside the window before she scooted forward on her seat and removed her jacket.

“Alright, now get up, leave the vehicle, and stay at least twenty-feet away from it.”

That threw Kotori for a loop. 

Not many people knew exactly how much of Umi’s reputation was truth and not rumor, so most of the time in rare situations like this, people didn’t try and separate her from her guard in fear of what she would do. Instead, they usually tried to take Umi down.

These two however, had an oddly high amount of information for a pair that were no dobt attempting to kidnap Kotori.

Kotori’s eyes widened instinctively and her mask slipped for probably the briefest of seconds, but it was enough for the man sitting up front to see her brief fear.

Kotori saw a smirk and the opposing weapon was leveled at her, at her chest. 

“Don’t be scared little bird,” Kotori felt a flash of rage at the nickname he was so casually slandering, but the emotion quickly died down in exchange for the fear beginning to roll in her stomach. “I promise we won’t harm you if the wolf there,” Kotori caught the singular address, Eli’s presence as a werewolf wasn’t known, interesting… “does what I say.”

 _I’m with you,_ Umi’s voice helped soothe some of the fear bubbling through Kotori’s system at the forced separation in a dangerous situation and reconfirmed to herself what somewhere inside of her, she already knew. _Do what they say, tell Nozomi and Eli what to do. This isn’t new to us Kotori._

Kotori’s golden eyes watched Umi as the werewolf discreetly tucked her bag more firmly with her feet beneath her seat and stood up. _Being separated like this is,_ she faltered then swallowed hard and pulled herself together, _but I understand, be safe Umi-chan._

Umi didn’t respond besides a glance behind her that spoke volumes of itself before she was gone.

Kotori swallowed again and forced a wary mask on her face to hide what she was feeling in the current moment, but even then she wasn’t quite all focused on the situation itself anymore.

She could handle having a gun pointed at her by now when her job and her life itself was a rather dangerous one outside of her home city. She had been kidnapped once as a teenager back when she and Umi were still young and periodically there were multiple attempts on her life even now. So that wasn’t new to her. What was new was having Umi separated from her during a situation like this. And it made the entire situation a hundred times harder to cope with and even harder to keep a mask on and hide how thrown off center and rattled she was by the loss of her mate beside her. 

Another person entered the car and slid into Umi’s previous seat. Kotori wanted to shy away from them as the car’s engine turned over and they took off. 

Their sharp cologne drowned out the traces of Umi’s jasmine and oakwood infused scent and the artificial scents were painful to her luna enhanced nose. 

She could see the uneasy shifting in Nozomi and Eli’s body languages and knew she needed to do something, to reassure them it was okay, but she couldn’t, not right now.

Umi had been there almost as long as Kotori could remember, from clear back when they were just starting elementary school even if she had merely been a friend at the time. But now? Now Umi was Kotori’s twenty-four-seven ghost and equal companion. Her mate, her lover, her best friend, her fluffy guard, Umi was all of it. They were rarely apart and even when they were, Kotori knew she was nearby ready at a moment’s notice to come running. But…

She wasn’t here anymore. Umi’s side of their bond was temporarily closed down, preventing Kotori from knowing what she was up to and likely due to the alpha focusing all of her attention and mind on whatever she was planning.

Then a flash of black out of the corner of her eye caught her attention and Kotori barely managed to keep the narrowed eyed reaction off her face. Still, she had to know if it was what she thought it was. So silently, while under the guise of looking out the window, Kotori tuned out the driver and stranger’s conversation and silently drew on her magic. 

Her vision changed and no doubt her eyes glowed as she let her magic’s touch wash over the area around her. The earth taking on more rich and earthy tones with bright green and white contrasts for those living and still alive. 

The brief sight of, and magic brush against, a flickering form made Kotori’s heart clench momentarily at the unfortunate knowledge of a dying life force and unlike normally, she was moving too fast to aid the elderly man. 

Kotori gave her head a mental shake, besides she had something else to check with the possibly few more seconds of time she had before someone addressed her. 

So Kotori focused, filtering through the thousands of life forms her magic touched as they sped by and feeling her heart ache at the many that were flickering in the beginning signs of beginning to die. Then she found it.

A form that stayed consistent in distance and speed from her position. 

With her heart in her throat, Kotori tapped into the lifeforms that the one of interest was skirting around and weaving through. Contrary to popular belief, nature had senses of their own, and Kotori was one of the few hundred people on the planet that could tap into them.

Rhythmic drumming of paws slapping against concrete and dirt filtered into her ears. The sound was accompanied by light breathing through a nose and the rustling of fur being dragged back flat against the body by the air current produced by the creature’s abnormally high speeds to keep up with the vehicle going close to fifty miles-per-hour.

It was undoubtedly Umi.

Kotori barely hid the smile that threatened to spread over her face and shut off her magic completely. Letting the lingering magic soak into the earth around her instead of drawing it back into herself. It felt like her world was back to normal, and that she could draw strength from.

“Relax,” she prodded Nozomi and Eli in her usual publicly soft tone. Putting a mild emphasis on the word through her luna abilities that anyone but werewolves couldn’t hear. “It’s alright,” she offered her friends a mild comforting smile and didn’t flinch at the contact of the gun being pressed into her side at her speaking without being asked. 

Yet another thing she had had happen to her multiple times over the years.

“I have to apologize,” Kotori spoke softly and offered them her trademark gentle smile as Nozomi and Eli settled in their seats. “You were making my friends here a little nervous and that’s why I spoke up.”

“See,” the driver spoke up with a minor chuckle and Kotori felt the gun in her side lessen in pressure, “I had heard about your very compassionate nature Minami. But I admit, I thought it was a mere act.”

Kotori smiled gently and shook her head, being meticulously careful in keeping all of her emotions in check and off of her face. After all, it was more important now than ever that she kept her cool and it was much easier with the knowledge that Umi was tailing them. “It’s no act,” technically the compassion part wasn’t, the whole gentle doormat and couldn’t hurt a fly on the other hand was to a certain extent. “Part of why my mother chose me as a liaison is because I care about all supernaturals and humans alike.”

Besides Umi, her pack, and her friends and family anyway. She cared and treasured them above all others, almost no matter what.

The driver chuckled a little harder, “oh how sweet the song of the innocent youth,” he tsked and Kotori narrowed her eyes just slightly in wariness from beneath her gentle mask. Even for someone who had literally just kidnapped her and two of her packmates, Kotori felt as though something was off with the stranger.

There had to be something she didn’t know about, that they were hiding.

“Move the gun away from her Yosif, there’s nothing here for Miss. Minami to cause trouble with. Now then, there seems to be more people than I’ve been paid to bring with us.”

Eli visibly stiffened at the phrasing but Kotori leveled her naturally droopy gentle golden-eyed gaze at her. 

_Eli…_ she warned briefly before she focused on the driver with her usual gentle smile. “What’re you going to do to them?” Inwardly fear bubbled softly through her stomach. After all, these guys weren’t exactly peaceful from what she had seen and experienced so far.

Kotori jerked forward as the car came to a sharp stop.

“As reimbursement for you, Miss. Minami, not causing any problems, I’m releasing your friends without anything more than a threat. However, any sharp movements from any of you and I’ll gladly let my friend here end one of you.”

“Can you guess who I’ll shoot first?” The barrel of the gun in the lackey’s hands jabbed harshly into Kotori’s side once more. 

Kotori flawlessly hid a flinch at the sensation, the sharp click of the safety being disengaged that hit her ears, and the gravely rough voice of the man beside her. Realistically the gunshot wouldn’t kill her, not with her wards. However it would definitely break a rib or two and leave an unhealthy and painful amount of bruising.

It didn’t take much experience to be able to read the subtle tensing of Eli’s body language, especially when Kotori had seen Umi do the same thing many times in the past. The tensing of their muscles for a lunge or attack. 

_Eli, don’t attack them,_ Kotori discreetly narrowed her eyes at the blonde. _Take his offer and leave the car with Nozomi._

 _What?!_ Kotori felt Eli’s shock slam into her with the force of a freight train and it disorientated her, throwing Kotori off and making it harder to keep up her flawless mask. _Kotori are you out of your mind?!_

 _Eli-_ Nozomi spoke up, green eyes flickering toward the blonde, but was cut off.

 _You’ll be alone in a car full of people trying to kidnap you Kotori!_ Eli snarled.

Kotori took an inward deep mental breath to settle the nerves in her stomach that Eli’s shock had stirred up and heightened. _My main weaknesses aren’t well known Eli, it takes a lot to put my magic out of commission._

_Still! Kotori this is insanity!_

Kotori straightened up a little more and lifted her chin, “as the liaison officer for supernaturals,” _and the Luna of your pack,_ “I request you leave the vehicle.” The request wasn’t a request, not with her rare cool but fierce tone of voice rather than her usual gentle soft-spoken one. 

“Looks like the little bird actually has a backbone,” the man beside Kotori almost cooed and Kotori felt a chill go down her spine at his tone of voice. By the narrowing of Eli’s eyes Kotori saw, Eli didn’t like it either.

Kotori let her eyes narrow at Eli even as the gun was pushed harsher into her side and the driver spoke up.

“You have thirty seconds Mrs. Minami to remove your friends or we finish them for you.”

Kotori paid no attention to his threat and instead spoke to Eli. She didn’t like pulling out some of the underhanded cards given to her by being a pack luna, but in this case there was no choice. _Eli,_ so Kotori further sharpened her tone and added a low growl into the mix that showed she was serious. _Take Nozomi and leave the vehicle now._ She felt bad and forcing her friends to leave made her control over her fear and nerves unravel just a little. However, it was necessary, nobody was going to get harmed or killed because of her. Not if she had a choice in changing the outcome.

The microscopic dip of Eli’s chin in a form of werewolf submission told Kotori that despite the expression of restrained frustration on the beta werewolf’s face, they would do as she had told her to.

“Time is short Minami.”

“I understand,” Kotori forced her voice to be even and level, gentle and soft-spoken to match her normal public and rather natural tone of voice. She nodded toward the door with a mild smile, topaz colored eyes hiding everything she was thinking and feeling even from the people that were essentially her family. “Go on, I’ll be okay,” she spoke gently and her heart stung at Eli’s refusal to even look at her anymore. She knew the blonde didn’t agree with what she was doing, but she didn’t really have any other choice.

“Look, both of you get moving before I do something to Minami’s pretty face,” the man beside Kotori drawled and Kotori stifled a shiver. This man was strange, his scent masked by heavy cologne and the way he acted wasn’t normal. 

Kotori had dealt with humans and supernaturals alike for years beyond the mutual involvement that came with mingling in cities and neighborhoods, but even if he was acting weird what could she do about it right now? Nothing. There was nothing she could do with so many people in a small space when her magic wasn’t naturally pin-point focused.

“Don’t hurt her, ” Nozomi spoke in English as she unbuckled herself, green eyes flickering with knowledge and minor hesitation and concern. “We’re going, right Eli?”

Eli mumbled some response in Russian, which reminded Kotori of their first meeting, stubbornly refused to look at Kotori as she unbuckled her seatbelt. 

Kotori swallowed slightly and watched them both reluctantly leave the car. A sense of foreboding hit her violently as the door shut behind them and the car lurched into motion.

She was virtually alone now, after all, who knew where Umi was at this point. 

Kotori straightened her shoulders and directed her vision outside, golden eyes instinctively drawn toward the warm sun through the tinted windows. Now alone Kotori needed all the strength she could get. Even if it was just from merely staring at the sun through the tinted windows and letting the cool rays from the glass absorb through her skin and shift into the essence of energy and light itself.

She had gone through this before, it would be fine. She just had to believe it, hope for help and the strength to make it, and play her cards right. After all, humans weren’t much of a problem to a magic user especially one such as herself, right?

After who knows how long Kotori had been staring out the window, the driver’s rough voice speared through her silent bubble.

“I apologize Mrs. Minami, but those who share blood with wolves aren’t allowed in my presence if given the option. So they all had to go.”

Kotori blinked, did they have a problem with werewolves?

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Kotori spoke softly, keeping a calm gentle smile on her face and relying on the training Umi had given her many years ago. “I hope to unite supernaturals and humans alike including peace between all of the different races and cultures that make up the supernatural world.” The words came easy there, after all, that was her end goal and purpose as a liaison and…

As her mother’s daughter. 

“I admire your determination,” the driver chuckled hoarsely, “after all you’ve dedicated your entire life to making that happen.”

“Well it’s a cause that’s too important to ignore,” Kotori pointed out softly, “especially when ignorance is a starter for conflict.”

A tall building vanished from Kotori’s window. They were entering the corporate business district.

“Once again your words are true,” the driver chuckled, the sound more malignant than before. “It’s a pity you got dragged into this Kotori Minami, for you could’ve been so much more.”

Kotori felt more alarms go off in her head at the phrasing and immediately prepared the magic simmering softly in a general pool at her stomach before cautiously unbuckling her seat belt. 

“Shirokov, if you please.”

“With pleasure,” the man beside Kotori chuckled and Kotori immediately shifted closer to her door at the almost purring malignant response. “See Minami, there’s been a misunderstanding here,” the man purred as Kotori felt the gun be removed from her side to be tossed carelessly behind him. 

Kotori didn’t speak and instead opted to discreetly focus her magic on the cabin of the car. A memorized nonverbal spell on the tip of her tongue.

“My name is Shirokov as you well heard, however…” The man’s hazel eyes flickered in color before their irises adopted a distinct red ring that made Kotori smash down the instinctive urge to hunch her shoulders to hide her neck. “... what you didn’t hear was that I along with my companions, aren’t puny humans and I wonder what your blood would taste like, Angel of the Sun.”

Vampires. 

Werewolves’ mortal enemy and one of the two races that sought to gain control over magic and shifters alike. 

Of course they made Nozomi and Eli leave, even if they weren’t fully aware that Eli was a werewolf. No doubt Kotori, Eli, and Nozomi had traces of Umi’s scent on them due to their proximity and how they lived in the pack house with the alpha. 

However in Kotori’s case Umi’s woody jasmine scent likely clung to her more for a multitude of reasons including that Umi was with her all of the time and of course, their relationship. 

Kotori found herself briefly thanking that the full moon had passed a few weeks ago and it wasn’t winter otherwise that could’ve caused more problems.

“Not now Shirokov,” the driver spoke roughly and the other vampire merely rolled their eyes and bared a fanged malicious smirk.

“Of course sir, there’s time for that later. For now,” red ringed hazel eyes focused intently on Kotori’s before the angel could react and Kotori found herself paralyzed, frozen with sudden fear. “It’s time for you to go to sleep, sweet one.”

Fear rolled over Kotori like a tsunami, fear that wasn’t Kotori’s in the first place invading her delicately balanced emotional levels and manipulating them.

Kotori felt ill, she could hear her heart as it pounded irregularly at lightning speeds in her ears, felt the nausea clenched around her stomach in it’s tight grasp, and cursed. 

Emotional manipulation, a skill a powerful vampire owned and abused to twist the mind into a chaotic mess.

Kotori lurched slightly toward the seat as her vision spun briefly, the forced emotions making her entire body react in confusion and terror which was not what the angel needed right now.

“Poor angel,” the vampire cooed and Kotori watched him approach through dizzy half closed golden eyes while she braced herself by her shoulder against the back of the seat. “Too pure to be able to fight manipulation.

Kotori narrowed her dizzy visioned eyes and concentrated her magic into her shaking left palm. confused and disorientated by the vampire’s emotional manipulation. But where light should’ve condensed into a ball on her hand, nothing happened. Instead, Kotori felt her magic flow back into the rest of her body, pooling at her stomach like it did when idle.

Kotori’s eyes widened with real fear. 

They hadn’t forced emotional manipulation on her to make her easier to handle, somehow they had known that her magic could be suppressed with high emotional distress without access to her soulmate’s reserves. 

“W-What…?” Kotori stared at them, her shock managing to outbalance the fear. “h-how…?”

It wasn’t a complete secret that Umi was her soulmate, but everyone merely viewed it as a platonic bond. However, the knowledge of her magic’s suppression under emotional distress without access to her _romantically bonded soulmate,_ was information private to a handful of people outside of the pack.

Panic bubbled in Kotori’s stomach, did they know her relationship with Umi wasn’t a platonic soulmate bond nor coworkers?

Kotori’s wings tried to unfurl to protect her panicked body in the form of a barrier, but they were stuck. 

What the? 

All of her tops and jackets had the secret wing slits she designed in high school in the back, just like Umi’s. So why were her wings stuck in her jacket?! 

“What, don’t like our present?” The vampire smirked and Kotori could see their sharp canines, similar to werewolves’ in length but smaller in size, through the expression. She could also see the cloth they pulled out of a plastic bag and her luna heightened nose picked up on the bitter scent of chloroform right away.

The fabric of her jacket stretched and bulged under her wing's strength but didn’t tear under the hundreds of pounds of pressure as Kotori scrambled frantically backward along the bench seat. Panic surging through her blood in her haste to escape the unfamiliar vampire stalking toward her like a predatory cat while the two kidnappers up front merely chuckled.

“It was made just for you, Kotori Minami,” the predatory vampire cooed maliciously.

Kotori’s back hit the locked car door and her panic and fear shot up higher through the roof. She could feel the trembles in her arms and knew her fear showed all over her face as the drugged cloth was brought closer and closer to her.

Without her wings and focused magic while in the small confines of a vehicle, her only lines of defense were disabled. Even her luna abilities, as all of her luna abilities were passive in the form of being useless in a fight, besides one and revealing that would be suicide for the project they had all been working so hard to build and finish.

Kotori shied away from them, screwing up her face and shutting her eyes in fear as they got closer and closer to her.

Closer...

The vampire’s cologne was filling her nose.

...and closer...

The acidic tang of blood on their breath bit into her heightened sense of smell and her heart was beating fearfully in her ears.

...and just a little closer…

Kotori whimpered in fear, the sound coming out more wolfish than human without her noticing. 

“W-What?” The voice was louder than it had been earlier.

Kotori’s golden eyes snapped open to find the vampire close to her holding stock still with wide hazel eyes focused on her in a blank stare of pure shock and disbelief.

Wait… if her hearing was sharper than before…

The car began to slow down slightly, “what’s going on back there?”

Kotori’s golden eyes snapped to the window behind the vampire and much to the luna’s horror, the proof of her suspicions of the activation of one of her abilities stared right back at her. 

Fluffy wolf ears sat flattened in fear and horror on either side of her feathery tuft on the top of her head. 

Her fear and panic had gotten so high that it triggered a rare luna response and caused her ears to shift forms, thereby revealing her well kept secret.

A secret that could ruin relationships between certain supernatural races if found out by the full public and had been kept perfectly for close to seven years now. A secret that couldn’t go public, a secret that was...

...that she was a luna, a pack leader to werewolves. Making her in their eyes, unreliable, unable to be relatively unbiased, and in some races, a traitor to their friendship.

“It’s Minami, she’s got-”

The cabin went dark, pitch black dark. 

The crystal scent of familiar lunar magic pierced through the blood and cologne that filled Kotori’s nose and she clung to it for a mere second.

“What the- Hey! What’s going on back there?!” Kotori heard the driver shout but she was focused on forcing herself calm. She clung to the traces given off by the magic, focusing on the caster in an attempt to wrestle her emotions under control and thereby reverse the luna ability.

“I-I don’t know!”

“What do you mean you don’t know?! Get her knocked out already!”

Her ears changed shape just as the darkness flashed out of existence, leaving her staring a foot away from the predatory vampire who looked both rattled and extremely angry.

“You’re so not worth the trouble-!”

That’s when something slammed into the roof of the vehicle and made the entire vehicle shudder beneath it's sudden weight and threw the vampire away from Kotori. 

“Shit!” The driver scrambled to fix the weaving Kotori could feel the car was doing, “what the hell is that?!”

Kotori stared wide-eyed at the roof where there were four six-inch deep imprints of overly massive paws surrounded by the dented and bent metal from the creature’s weight. A smile of relief spread over Kotori’s face, she recognized the exact size of those paws, having held her hand up to them many times in the past. 

_Umi-chan!_

All at once, her bond with Umi reactivated. Flooding the angel-mage with Umi’s very alien alpha-wolf mind in the current moment and the anger seething through the bluenette’s well guarded mind.

There was brief screeching of metal like a dog was digging with their front paws, before a set of tough, jet black, sharp retractable nails punctured through the limo’s roof. Which was quickly followed by the entirety of a massive royal blue paw. An intimately familiar, blue paw.

“Shit! Get that thing off of us!” The driver swore as Umi’s weight shifted and sent the vehicle swerving a little across the mainly unused road.

However, Kotori's attention was drawn to the vampire in the back with her, who was staring at her, a mixture of shock and horror lingering on their face.

“You… you…”

Kotori stared back at him as another paw made it through the roof and both were quickly retracted.

“That w-werewolf…” the vampire stumbled, “a-and you… you h-have ears-”

“Get it off the car you idiot! Shoot it or something!”

“-like th-them,” disgust darkened in their eyes and Kotori lifted her hands defensively, magic crackling warily through her veins.

“You’re… you’re part of them!” The vampire bared his teeth and light flared at Kotori’s palms as he approached, “a-and that guard!” He hissed and panic bubbled up into Kotori’s throat.

He couldn’t have, he couldn’t have figured it all out, right?

There was no way.

Nobody outside of their pack and their families knew that Umi wasn’t just her soulmate and that they were much, much more than just coworkers and friends. 

The vampire slunk closer and Kotori cautiously tucked her hands into a closer knit defensive position, the usually vibrant green of her magic beginning to take on a blue color in an almost lava-lamp fashion. A sign of anxiety combined with the usage of her magic as she flicked her wrist. Putting up a simple short silencing spell just in case he said what Kotori was hoping and praying that he wouldn’t.

“You’re all about the werewolves aren’t you?” the vampire snarled and Kotori parted her lips to utter an attacking spell, but the words rolled back and got lodged in her throat at his next snarl. “After all, you’ve abandoned being human and are fucking mated to the one attacking us!”

Umi’s weight made the car shift even as Kotori’s spell dissolved, and Kotori’s breath hitched at the accusation that could in a way, ruin everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took way too long to write… My brain struggled so bad in connecting everything and not making it seem too rushed that this ended up being 9.6 thousand words. Welp my brain’s fried, but I’m excited to continue!


	5. The Wreck

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took way too long to write, I may have been stuck on the second NicoMaki scene for two weeks....  
> I included a couple sketches and full image of the stuff I've drawn since last time, though I'm working on drawing each of the characters who are able to shift in their respective animal forms.

Kotori found herself frozen again, but this time it wasn’t from any foul-play from the vampire and truthfully, she couldn’t decide which one was worse. All she knew right now was that it was over, everything was over.

Something in Kotori mimicked the glass of her window as it shattered into a thousand pieces.

The frustration in Umi’s growl changed to an almost wild roar just before it was silenced by the crack of an earshattering gunshot.

* * *

**_A/N:_ ** _I accept my fate Xd_

Nico looked blankly down at the assignment that somehow her professor had covered in a lecture and yet here she was, completely lost. At least her current surroundings were nice, much nicer than her small apartment anyhow. 

Nico slumped backward into the comfortable cushions of the couch and rubbed her temples in a hope to release the building tension she could feel in her shoulders. Give her an acting gig, a young child to comfort to cheer up, or even an assignment to strike a conversation with a complete stranger and Nico could breeze through it like it was nothing. But give her a math assignment like the one sitting on the lapdesk resting on her knees and she guessed she would grow a few gray hairs before she managed to work her way through the damn thing. 

A frustrated groan escaped the ravenette’s lips and Nico let her head loll back against the couch while her hands dropped unceremoniously into her lap. The clock on the wall behind her read seven-thirty from her upside down reading skills and the only reason she was even awake in the first place was the complete chaos that had happened earlier that morning, courtesy of Nozomi. 

A peaceful sort of ambiance had fallen over the large house since everyone, well almost everyone, had left for their flights to someplace even Nozomi hadn’t mentioned. It probably had to do with being an extra layer of protection toward the angel liaison who lived here as well. 

Nico exhaled slowly and closed her eyes as she tried for at least a few moments to simply relax. 

_Deep breaths Nico,_ she told herself and followed her own directions, _in…_

_And out…_

She had plenty of time before the acting tryouts this afternoon to complete this assignment so there was no reason to stress about it, right?

_In…_

_And out…_

She had plenty of time… at least she thought she did.

_In…_

_And out…_

Maybe she was forgetting about something, something that she was supposed to be doing before the tryouts and between her two classes today.

_In…_

_And out..._

“I give up,” Nico deadpanned aloud and fixed the source of her irritation with a glare as she sat up straight and opened her eyes. “Screw you and your stupid-ass pressure, dumb math assignment as seven-thirty in the morning,” she grumbled as she picked it up with a scowl.

“Cursing your assignment isn’t going to relieve any of your stress.”

Nico nearly lit the paper in her hands on fire in sheer instinctive fright at the sudden English with a mild rasp. 

Remember when she had said _almost_ everyone had left for their flights? Well there was one other person who didn’t have a flight and Nico was supposed to be in a way, babysitting.

Nico’s head and upper body whipped around to look over her shoulder and get a clear view of the messy red-haired Maki Nishikino walking casually up the end of the basement stairs.

The sheer volume of the werewolf’s footsteps explained why Nico hadn’t noticed her earlier, as the supernatural creature’s footsteps were almost inaudible to Nico’s human ears. 

“How do you know that it doesn’t?” Nico instinctively shot back at the reserved redhead with a temper. “Is there some scientific research that says verbally cursing something doesn’t relieve stress?”

Maki, with her hands tucked casually into fleece pj pants in an irritatingly cool manner, offered a shrug of her slim shoulders covered by a lab coat. “It depends on the sort of stress you’re under, and it’s only healthy verbally discussing stressors with people, not cursing physical objects.”

“Well if you’re asking to be my counselor or something I have to say no,” Nico deadpanned and settled back in her seat. She did keep an eye on the redhead out of the corner of her eye, thoroughly annoyed at how she could look cooly fashionable in an odd combination of a lab worker and casual pjs.

“I’m not asking to be your counselor Nico,” Maki replied flatly as she veered away from Nico and toward the kitchen, “though I don’t envy the person who would have to be that.”

Nico narrowed her eyes, “I’ll have you know, Nico does her best to be nice to everyone she meets, unlike you, Maki.”

Maki stopped abruptly.

The sudden movement surprised Nico, “what’re-”

Maki turned around and Nico’s sentence got stuck in her throat as Maki’s amethyst colored eyes studied her in a half-boredly lazy, half- intensely curious sort of way.

Nico shifted her weight a little, rather uncomfortable under the redhead’s silent stare. She replayed the last few parts of their conversation in her head and still found herself stumped. The redhead hadn’t been sensitive to anything so far in their admittedly, half-argument conversations, and she hadn’t said anything too intense had she? So why was the med-student analyzing her like she was right now?

“Why do you care what other people think?” Maki suddenly asked and effectively startled Nico from her headspace.

“Say that again?” Nico requested, just to confirm that the redhead had just asked her essentially why did she care about people’s thoughts.

Maki sighed and leaned back on the balls of her feet in a lazy and relaxed stance, a flicker of more curiosity gleamed in her purple eyes. “It’s a simple question Nico, why do you care about what other people think?”

Nico’s eyebrows knitted together, “because I want to make everyone smile? So in order to make someone smile I have to know and be aware of what they’re thinking or feeling?”

“So you don’t care about what they think of you?”

“Of course I do!” Nico retorted back, “how can I be a proper actress without caring about what someone else thinks of me and my performance?”

Maki shrugged and stayed relaxed, “you can be a proper actress without any of that by believing in yourself. Having that and an ego is better than tailoring your actions toward other people.”

Maki had a point, a very valid one at that. Sure, Nico believed in herself, that was a given, but it was exhausting at times portraying herself a certain way. 

“Is that how you think Maki?” It also made sense if that was how Maki viewed the world, since the redhead was easily a genius and yet outside of the pack, Nico hadn’t seen her interact much outside of some mild casual conversation with students on the campus.

“More or less,” Maki shrugged and mindlessly twirled a lock of red hair around a finger, “it’s a werewolf thing really, something Kotori taught me and a younger werewolf back before she and Umi formed the pack.”

The more she learned about this pack the more Nico felt like it was more than what humans saw werewolf packs as. If all packs were like this one, then they weren’t just communities, werewolf packs were strong families. 

“Come on,” Maki turned toward another part of the house, somewhere where Nico hadn’t been yet and began to walk.

Nico sat up straighter, leaning toward the werewolf, “where exactly?”

“I’m going to help you relax,” Maki replied with a mild smirk sent in Nico’s direction, “or are you too scared?”

Nico narrowed her eyes at the jab and set the lapdesk aside before she followed after the red-haired werewolf, “Nico’s never scared, bring it on wolf-brain!”

* * *

The bitter smell of torn metal and gasoline were pungent in the air and stung Eli’s nose as her shoes slapped harshly against the asphalt. There was no real way to expect what would’ve happened, even if they had managed to change the future Nozomi had seen like Umi had insisted she would’ve. 

Nothing would tell them what happened to their pack alpha and luna till Eli got them to the location where Umi’s scent trail ended with Nozomi carried in her arms. 

Normally Eli would’ve been glad to let Nozomi run and walk alongside her, but in circumstances as unpredictable as these, time was too precious and she had had no choice.

 _Anything Nozomi?_ Eli asked her for what was probably the tenth time. A part of her hoped and pleaded with the goddess that blessed her kind that Nozomi’s unique supernatural powers would tell them if they were both truly okay or not. 

_I’m sorry Elichi,_ Nozomi’s voice was quiet and guilt-ridden, _the spirits still aren’t showing me anything._

Eli found her feet pushing just that millimeter further with each stride at the repeated confirmation. _It’s alright, I know you tried your best Non-ton._

Werewolves were hard to kill yes, but they weren’t invincible. Their sheer size, strength, speed, and teamwork mindset often made it seem as though they were, but they definitely weren’t invincible as Eli well knew. 

The smell of blood and vicious snarling flashed briefly through Eli’s mind and the blonde brushed it aside with a sharp shake of her head. What happened in the past didn’t matter now, what mattered was that she wasn’t going to let one of those she cared for die, not this time. Never again would she subject herself and others to a demise like that and besides, if push came to shove, she owed Kotori her life and the angel was too precious to too many people to lose.

With her heightened senses Eli could see the car now and it wasn’t a pretty sight.

From what Eli could see, the vehicle looked mangled and turned over. As though it had crashed directly into an invisible wall, and she could see just the faintest flash of what looked like blue around a flicker of the black of shadows on the ground.

The flicker of movement sparked the hope that at least one of her friends was okay.

 _What can you see?_ Nozomi had definitely picked up on the relief that Eli no doubt showed off in the inner parts of her mind.

 _I can see Umi I think,_ Eli replied quickly as she put on more speed to approach the car faster. 

_What about Kotori?_

Eli stayed silent, if Kotori was gone she didn’t want to confirm it, not to the angel’s closest friend besides Umi.

 _Eli?_ Nozomi sounded a little nervous and Eli could smell the more concern in her mate’s scent.

Luckily Eli didn’t have to tell her anything, not when she felt the air cool just enough to make the hair on her arms stand up and the short hair at the nape of her neck bristle.

It was sunny and bright, without a single cloud in the sky yet the temperature had dropped to a temperature Eli would’ve been more familiar with if there had been many clouds.

Eli hadn’t felt this more than a handful of times since she had joined the pack that had essentially become her family. Yet it was so distinct she knew exactly what was coming.

So Eli instinctively hunched her shoulders toward Nozomi and spun on her heels so her back was to the car, _shut your eyes!_

She didn’t have time to check if Nozomi had indeed closed her eyes as she caught a flash of a bright spark in her peripherals and was forced to squeeze her own blue eyes shut to protect them.

There was an unnatural sensation of having every wall and defense protecting her soul, not her mind, instantly pierced through. Before something seized her by her very being and Eli was rendered useless and frozen, the very essence of her life being analyzed in the span of what felt like forever.

Eli’s mind was freaking out. Not so much by what was happening to her, since she had had it done on her before in the past, but over why it was happening.

 _Eli?_

That’s right, Nozomi had no experience in this.

 _Kotori’s okay,_ Eli quickly splurged, feeling the relief that both of her packmates and friends were alive wash over her despite her frozen state. _If Kotori can reach us from here with a spell of this magnitude she has to be okay Nozomi._

 _Okay,_ Nozomi sounded just as relieved as Eli felt, _but what is this Elichi?_

Now that was the complicated part, not even Umi had been willing to explain what the spell was much less Kotori who was as always, rather tight-lipped about her magic.

 _Umi once explained it to me as a spell that forced life to stand still and reveal all of it’s secrets,_ Eli explained, _but Kotori never mentioned anything other than it’s usually a last resort spell and it consumes a lot of energy._

The warm, but unnatural hold on Eli’s life essence vanished and Eli found herself lurching forward in a stumble as she found herself in control of her body once more. 

Eli caught herself half-way through the stumble and shifted her stance to spin around on one foot. Pebbles of the asphalt ground beneath the heel of her shoe as she turned back toward where the flash of light had originated and began to run. 

Eli felt Nozomi’s nose nuzzle into her shirt in a form of worry, but she could smell the worry and minor fear in her before she said anything aloud. “They’re okay, right Eli?”

Eli felt the indescribable feeling of something urging her, urging her with the words beginning to tumble over her tongue.

 _‘It’s alright, everyone’s safe… we just have to relax…’_ It was the small bit of Nozomi’s powers Eli was blessed with from their bond. They didn’t surface often, but when they did, Eli knew better than to put them aside and feign ignorance over the urging of a spirit who knew what was to come. 

“Umi’s strong enough to keep Kotori safe from any harm,” Eli decided on after a moment as she ran toward where she could now easily see Kotori’s tired form kneeling on the asphalt near the overturned car and the reek of metal and motor oil. “This isn’t the first time this has happened to her- to either of them really, so let's not overreact.” Eli glanced down at the future scryer in her arms with a mild smile toward the gentle hearted girl who could get glimpses of the future whenever a spirit sought to give her the knowledge. 

“Umi-chan!” Kotori’s voice sharply dragged their attention toward the car as they got within a few yards of the damaged vehicle. The angel’s high pitched voice sounded abnormally nasally, almost like she was speaking through some kind of liquid that was likely getting into her mouth. 

Eli’s pace quickened at the sharp tang of fresh blood that overwhelmed her nose. Okay, screw the spiritual nudge, now Eli was more than a little concerned. 

Kotori was kneeling on the ground near the totaled car, the angel’s body was trembling and Eli could smell the bitter scent of the shock that the angel’s body had settled into. However the smell was heavily masked by the metallic tang of blood. 

Kotori was looking from side to side, slouching with exhaustion and looking at the ground while crimson blood trickled from a cut in her forehead and stained the side of her face and part of her shirt. 

Since when did Kotori end up actually injured?! Umi was notorious for keeping Kotori safe from any non-citizen situations and Eli hadn’t seen Kotori actually injured in a very long time.

 _Her face…_ Eli trailed, blue eyes focused on the heavy amount of dried blood on the side of Kotori’s face and head. Did she hit herself on something? Maybe the blood on her face was from the crash itself. However, even if that was the case, how come there was blood on Kotori’s shirt and flecked over the rest of her face?

The angel’s soft vanilla scent was almost smothered by the sheer amount of blood that was assaulting Eli’s sensitive nose. If the blonde hadn’t seen Kotori for herself she wouldn’t have been able to tell that it was her by scent alone and that wasn’t acceptable. 

Who dangered her pack? Her family? Whoever it was was going to pay and it wasn’t going to be pretty if Eli got her hands, or paws depending on her mood at the time, on them. Even if she wasn’t the pack’s alpha, Eli would make sure to repair the shield that had been keeping her family safe between her and Umi.

 _I think her nose is just bleeding,_ Nozomi broke in, breaking Eli’s over protective darker lurking line of thought. 

Eli tried to keep a level head and instinctively found herself drawing Nozomi closer in her hold to protect her. _Maki did mention head wounds bleed a lot last time we were guarding with Umi._ Eli took a calming breath before she gently set Nozomi down on her feet and began walking toward Kotori with her. 

“Kotori, you alright?” Nozomi asked, the future scryer’s eyebrows and face were scrunched with concern and worry for the angel despite her earlier words.

“I’m fine,” Kotori’s voice was broken up by blood bubbling up at her lips as she spoke. “Where’s Umi-chan?” She asked and weakly looked toward both of them, exhaustion weighing down her normally rather high pitched and soft voice. 

Right, where was Umi?

Eli’s muscles instinctively tensed up at the reminder of her alpha being missing while the pack luna and the liaison of supernaturals was here. Kotori and Umi rarely split up, out of protection for Kotori but also for more expansive spells and magic for Kotori to use, so where was she?

 _Stand down,_ a cool voice broke through the blood-induced worry tainting Eli’s mind and by the way Kotori’s shoulders seemed to release tension she guessed Umi was talking to all of them. _I am alright._

Sure enough Umi came slowly out from around behind the car, the werewolf clothed in the backup clothes Kotori always kept in her bag along with a hastily borrowed slightly torn up and bloody blazer that didn’t fit the werewolf’s slender shoulders all that well. 

Eli took careful note of how slow, and almost carefully, the other werewolf was moving. Till Umi seemed to purposely adjust the speed as Eli waited beside Kotori and Nozomi for the alpha.

“You should be tilting your head forward,” Umi’s voice rasped lightly over the English words as she approached her mate at a careful but swift pace, “and pinching your nose, Kotori.” There was something lurking in her voice Eli couldn’t properly analyze beneath the alpha’s meticulously maintained barriers that she hadn’t ever really seen her fully drop before.

“Umi-” Kotori tried to disagree with her mate but Umi gently but stubbornly cut her off by tilting her head forward and pinching the bridge of her nose to stem the bleeding of the mage’s nose. 

“Stay still,” Umi rasped and to Eli the alpha looked completely drained and more than a little beat up. She had blood matted in her blue hair, cuts along her cheeks and neck and her canines were extended, hidden in her lower lip unless she was talking. By the canines, cuts on her face and the way her hands were bloodied up and her fingernails were uneven at the edges, Eli could tell the alpha had been in her wolf form, fighting even, at some point. 

“No, Umi-” Kotori struggled to escape Umi’s grasp and reached toward the werewolf, fingertips glowing with soft wisps of greenish blue energy Eli recognized as the angel’s magic.

“I’m fine Kotori,” Umi cut her off again and stubbornly refused to let her head go. 

Eli narrowed her eyes in suspicion when the other werewolf’s gaze flickered to her and Nozomi as if defending her actions to the angel who apparently wasn’t in the mood to listen.

“Umi-!” Kotori’s worried golden eyes were glowing, swirls of green and… silver? Why did she have traces of moonlight in her eyes? 

“I’m _fine,_ ” Umi stressed the second word with a hint of irritation in the rasp of her voice.

Then soft, almost clumsy footsteps distracted Eli as they trotted up from behind her. The owner of the footsteps along with the faint scent of bread mixed with the tang of scent camoflauge and Eli instantly turned around. 

There was a woman now standing there about five feet away from Umi and Kotori in a camo jacket that was way too big for her, just like Umi and her blazer, and had a similar situation with the pants. 

She had shoulder length ginger hair currently loose and free with lightly tanned skin, crystal blue eyes that held swirls of silver moonlight, and seemed to be rather thin in body type. Her scent however told Eli that she was a werewolf, the almost sugar tainted smell of something freshly baked masking most of the wildness of the forest embedded into her body just like Umi and Eli herself. 

The ginger carefully placed the rather broken sniper in her hands onto the asphalt and while she showed no signs of aggression, Eli couldn’t help the cautious shifting of her weight.

Umi’s gaze flickered to the ginger and she straightened up slightly around her kneeling down partially hunched over keeping Kotori still. The alpha werewolf broke into a wry grin and Eli could see the relief in the way the corners of the alpha’s amber eyes lessened. “Took you long enough,” Umi spoke in English, her voice still carried the thick rasp and a little blood bubbled up at her lips which made more alarms go off in Eli’s head. Umi and Kotori smelled intensely of blood, the metallic scent hiding anything else including their emotions, not that Eli could ever really smell Umi’s. The question was, who was the main source of all the blood?

The ginger’s observant expression shattered into something close to a serious but also goofy grin and they stepped over the gun. “You’re so mean Umi,” the ginger chuckled, “the guy was on a roof who knows how far away.”

Kotori’s head jerked out of Umi’s hands, toward the person at the sound of their voice and her golden eyes widened in something akin to shock. “Honoka-chan?” The angel’s voice was still nasally, and at Umi’s noise of disapproval she pinched her bleeding nose to slow the bleeding further down. 

The ginger, apparently named Honoka Eli noted, gave the pair a lazy mock salute before she trotted closer to them both and carefully took the angel’s face into her hands with an expression of concern. “Geez, you sure your nose isn’t broken?” She looked at Umi out of the corner of her eye, “Umi never mentioned anything about how bad your nose was.”

“I have half a mind to pull you away from her by the ear Honoka,” Umi warned but it was half-hearted. Just like her warnings back home to Rin when the lone werewolf got her too hard in the leg or shoulder when playing. Instead of showing irritation or anything of the sort, the bluenette merely looked a little more tired and relaxed even as she lifted a hand toward Honoka in the beginnings of a handshake.

“Relaax, I’m just teasing Umi,” Honoka grinned and instead of grabbing the alpha’s offered hand in a typical handshake, she slapped her hand against Umi’s palm. Then both of them knocked the backs of their hands together, interlinked their fingers into an almost paw-like shape, released each other’s hands, and then finished off the elaborate handshake with a simple tap of their knuckles in the form of a fist bump.

Eli reeled, what was going on? She had been in this pack and around Umi for close to five years, gone on many trips with her and Kotori as a guard, and yet she had never seen this ginger before. Never seen the ginger, never had a near kidnap happen, and had never smelled so much blood in one place before.Q

Kotori had watched the handshake and to Eli’s surprise, the angel then pulled the ginger into a tight hug, fingers still clamped around her nose. “It’s so good to see you!” Admittedly the angel sounded nothing short of hilarious with a high pitched squeaky from excitement and very nasally voice, but Eli managed to keep her bubbling laughter inside as to not get her butt kicked by the alpha.

With her laughter contained, Eli then addressed the question floating around her and Nozomi, “sorry Umi, but who is this?”

“Ah, meet Honoka Kosuka,” Umi formally introduced the ginger after sharing a look of mutual resignation with Kotori and the ginger. Who offered Eli and Nozomi a goofy smile, in fact the woman almost seemed to have cheer and curiosity oozing out of her. “My childhood packmate and a childhood friend of Kotori and I,” Umi explained simply.

“Childhood…” Eli paused, “how come we’re never heard of or seen her before?” The bond between childhood packmates were difficult to break naturally, but with the reactions she had just witnessed from Umi and Kotori, it was hard to see why she was so much of a mystery to anyone but the three of them in front of her.

“Honoka was my mom’s body guard,” it looked like Kotori’s nose had finally stopped bleeding, “and she links Umi-chan to me on a personal level.”

“It’s like how you two only know anything about me excluding my reputation because you’re both my packmates,” Umi explained, “Honoka’s relations to Kotori and I are kept secret to anyone who hasn’t been involved in our careers from the beginning back when we were all kids.”

“Keeps people from finding a way to get to Kotori-chan,” Honoka shrugged but gave the ash-blonde a gentle hug with a grin.

“How come you asked me to come if she’s already here?” Eli couldn’t help but feel a little disgruntled when she was supposed to be there to help protect her pack Luna when there was another who was already trained in guarding just like Umi.

“I wasn’t aware she would be here till late last night,” Umi replied with a mild cough that made Eli more concerned over the alpha’s wellbeing. “Besides, Honoka has her own responsibilities.”

“After this there’s no way you could stop me from calling Tsubasa to get Anju and Erena to protect Mrs. Minami while I help you with Kotori-chan, Umi,” Honoka balked.

“What? I can protect her just fine-” Umi retorted indignantly, but Eli didn’t miss the way Umi moved more of the blazer into overlapping, no doubt to hide her injury more from them. 

Honoka’s blue eyes narrowed, “I’m not saying you can’t Umi, I’m saying I want to be there on standby in case you call for my help again.”

“Umi-chan, you called her here?” Kotori slowly spoke the words Eli wanted to say before she could utter a single word. 

Umi’s amber eyes shifted just slightly to one side but it seemed to give Kotori enough information without her speaking aloud. 

Kotori whirled on Honoka, her voice rather icy and Eli took a step back at the unintentional power behind the angel’s words. “When did she call you? Was that before or after the meeting my mom’s supposed to be in right now?”

“I assigned Erin to her,” Honoka quickly smoothed out the blonde’s feathers, or at least she tried to, “when I heard what was going on over here we had all of the important figures go into hiding in the basement with guards-”

“Then did Umi-chan call you before she noticed a sniper trying to kill her?” 

“She contacted me just after she was removed from the car,” Honoka answered quickly, “I was just within telepathic range when she alerted me about the sniper.”

Kotori’s anger broke and the ash-blonde grabbed onto her friend’s shoulders, “then will you please help me convince her to let me do something about her injury Honoka-chan?!”

“Injury?” Honoka looked a little bewildered, “what injury?”

“Umi-chan!” Kotori looked over at the alpha who’s flinch was only visible in the edges of her amber eyes, “you-”

“I’m _fine,_ Umi stressed the word, then flinched and hastened to grab Kotori’s hand when Kotori pressed her fingers into Umi’s lower chest through the blazer, “Kotori-”

“You got shot, by a sniper!” Kotori hissed and Eli cringed at her tone, if Kotori had been angry earlier, she was furious now. 

“It’s nothing-”

“You fell into the cabin of the car,” Umi winced when Kotori put more pressure, “used magic to allow you to stand, and I used my own magic when you fell and could barely sit up!”

Umi flinched again, the alpha’s body curling in slightly on itself at the pressure there and some color leaked from her face, “Kotori-”

 _“Don’t ‘Kotori’ me Umi-chan!”_ Kotori growled, wolfish, Kotori was angry enough to be speaking in wolf tongue and Eli could see the tears in the luna’s golden eyes.

Honoka didn’t get involved. Even if Eli could see it on the ginger werewolf’s face that she wanted to step in and defend her childhood packmate, she didn’t.

 _“Breathe Kotori,”_ Umi ignored Kotori’s exclamation even though Eli could see the telltale signs of excruciating pain that now glazed over the alpha’s eyes by the luna’s pressure against where no doubt her injury was. “ _It can’t kill me,”_ Umi made a low crooning noise, something soft and loving that rumbled through the alpha’s entire throat and exited through her nose and mouth. It was a sound that Eli had never heard before, not when the alpha was naturally more reserved around the pack as a whole. 

_“Take a breath,”_ when Kotori did as she suggested, Umi continued in wolfish as she carefully pried Kotori’s fingers from her body. _“You can look it over once we get to the children’s hospital, because they’re waiting for you. They’re looking forward to meet you, Kotori.”_

* * *

Nico had to admit, one of the last places she had expected Maki to bring her to was what was likely Kotori and Umi’s room if the neat and organized state of the bedroom was anything to go by.

While she was curious, especially about the authentic looking samurai katana displayed above a neatly organized desk, Nico felt as though she was violating the couple’s space being in the room. 

Kotori had been pretty easy to get along with as she found out after being stuck in the house overnight and shared some similar interests in regards to music. So a friendship with the mischievous but extremely gentle-hearted angel was easily kickstarted, unlike Nico’s relationship with Maki, if they even really had one. 

Umi on the other hand had been harder to really click with. The werewolf was naturally rather quiet around Nico, maintaining a wary but friendly atmosphere without seeming all that intimidating. She had tried to find something Umi was interested in, but Umi had been preoccupied with working out the last details of the trip the following morning or switching her attention between each member of her pack. All she had really gathered from the bluenette from purely being around Kotori with her around, was that she was fiercely loyal to her pack and put her full effort into whatever she was doing. 

According to Kotori, Umi would simply take a little time to really show the sharp tongued but kind and playful traits the rest of the pack, particularly Kotori and Nozomi, saw from the alpha werewolf. 

Nico furrowed her eyebrows, “Maki, why’d you bring me here? Nico’s pretty sure this is Kotori and Umi’s room. You might be fine with invading people’s space but I’m not.”

Maki rolled her eyes and continued to lead the way through the bedroom, “we’re just passing through. Umi’s fine with all of us going through here most of the time.” 

Nico’s gaze flickered to the other desk in the room, this one messy with fabrics and various textbooks, and afterward to the clothes mannequin beside it with what looked like the beginnings of a soft pink dress on it. “Still tomato-head, what’re we even doing here?”

“I told you, we’re passing through,” Maki sighed.

Nico rolled her eyes, the redhead was as eloquent as ever. “I know that, where are we going?”

“Fine, we’re going to Umi’s meditation room,” Maki snapped and shot her a glare, “now just stop asking questions and come with me Nico.”

Nico bit her tongue to keep from retorting back but reluctantly followed the redhead, it wasn’t like she had anything better to do other than a crappy math assignment.

Maki reached the end of the neatly organized room and pushed another set of double doors open, this house was seriously too big, revealing their final destination. 

Nico’s eyes widened. 

Maki’s title for the room gave it no justice when it was so different from the rest of the house. It was almost earthy there in the meditation room, a perfect mix of earthy nature and refined human civilization all combined in one well designed room. 

The air felt fresher here, something sustained by the miniature pine trees and trimmed small hedges in pots built into the floor near the walls.

The sound of gently trickling water hit Nico’s ears and the faint glow of underlighting in the sleek rock based structures that bordered the walls caught her eye as the source of the sound and moisture in the air. 

Maki flipped on a light switch near the double doors and the dim lighting brightened enough to match the tail end of a sunset. “Go sit down on the floor,” the redhead requested and wandered over toward a group of bean bags that sat on top of a folded futon and a couple blankets.

Nico nodded a little numbly and stepped further into the room, taking care to avoid the square shaped shallow pool of water near the entrance built into the hardwood flooring in the process. 

The place was in a way overwhelming to the mage of time and emotion. There had no doubt been so much thought and effort put into the creation of this room and it’s upkeep as well for that matter. But the atmosphere was what really threw Nico off. The room’s emotional energy levels were low and calm. A true peace surrounded the room and while it could’ve merely been a trick of Nico’s mind, but the room felt _timeless_. As though time didn’t pass the moment you stepped through the doors and into the room.

Nico carefully lowered herself onto the center of the floor, red eyes wandering around the beautiful room and especially the tiny bonsai trees so carefully shaped and trimmed throughout the place. “What… is this place?” She asked almost mindlessly, the words escaping her lips before she really thought about them.

“It’s Umi’s secret weapon,” Maki shrugged and picked up two beanbags in one hand by the top edge of each. 

“Seriously? Besides making you feel like you’ve just stepped into wonderland, what does this even do?” Nico questioned as she watched the redhead approach.

“The room’s only part of it,” Maki rolled her eyes and carefully stepped around a small bonsai tree, “the rest is something I’m going to teach you. It’s good for stress relief.”

Nico raised an eyebrow, “do I really want a werewolf, the creature known for being extremely impulsive, teaching me some whacky unknown technique for stress relief?”

Maki stopped a few feet away from her and gave her an unamused look before she tossed the beanbag directly into the ravenette. “Just sit down on the beanbag Nico, I have a class in an hour.”

Nico shot her a glare for the beanbag being thrown at her. “Fine,” the redhead had gone out of her way to show her something, oddly calm or not, and Nico recognized effort when she saw it so she did as the redhead asked. 

Plus the beanbag was soft, a soft microfiber fabric and lightly cushy barrier between her and the rather cool hardwood flooring that she did find it more comfortable than the floor.

Maki took her time to settle down crosslegged on a beanbag beside her, the redhead werewolf taking her sweet ass time to relax and get comfortable despite her earlier comment.

“It’s better when Umi’s been around lately,” Maki randomly pointed out as she leaned forward slightly on her elbows in a casually slouched manner. “The ceiling turns to the night sky with real stars and constellations so you can stargaze.”

Nico’s red eyes drifted toward the smooth flat ceiling above them both. With how reserved Umi seemed to be she wasn’t exactly surprised to find out the werewolf liked to stargaze. Though with the fact that Maki brought it up, did she like to stargaze too?

“Anyway,” Maki leaned forward on her arms in a relaxed position, “meditation, you ever heard of it?”

“Er, yeah,” Nico wracked her brain for what the concept was. She had heard of it somewhere, but it hadn’t really interested her at the time, hence the semi-struggle to remember what it was. Maki had mentioned it was good for stress relief right? So it probably had something to do with relaxation, but the big question was, what was it?

Nico saw Maki’s nose twitch just slightly out of the corner of her eye before the redhead had rolled her eyes with a resigned sigh, “of course you don’t know what it is.”

“Yes I do!” Nico scowled, how the hell did she know that fast? “I know what that meditation thing is, don’t treat me like I’m stupid tomatohead!”

Maki gave her a flat look then promptly ignored her outburst, “just shut up and listen Nico.”

Nico growled under her breath but sat still and reluctantly kept her mouth closed as per the redhead’s request. Her behavior was a little odd and speaking of which, hadn’t she been acting rather weird all morning? 

The red head was a klutzy fireball as far as Nico could tell and yet… She hadn’t really seen much if any of that fire she had been unintentionally shoving in Nico’s face since she met her yesterday morning even if it felt like she had known her for ages now. Maki had been boredly calm all morning after she seemed to wake up properly. Though according to Nozomi the redhead wasn’t truly awake till she had gotten some caffeine into her system.

“Close your eyes,” Maki gave no indications of being aware of her confusion as she closed her eyes with her hands clasped comfortably in her lap.

Nico took a quick glance at her before she mirrored her and closed her eyes. 

Maki seemed to know when she closed her eyes as she spoke right after she closed them. “Focus on what’s around you right now,” she told the older college student in a calm voice, “disregard whatever’s running through your mind right now and focus on what’s really here around her.”

Disregard whatever she was thinking about? That was kind of hard when the subject of her thoughts was sitting right next to her acting very weird. 

Still, she kept her eyes closed and tried to focus on what Maki had asked her to do. She focused first on what she could hear. Trickling water hit her ears, the sound of tiny waterfalls and the sound of synthetic birds and wildlife. Nico could hear Maki’s breathing, the werewolf’s slow -almost rough- breathing that gave off a sense of peace and quiet control. The fabric of Maki’s shirt and lab coat rustled with each breath and she smelled of peppermint and a warm campfire…

Maki sighed, “okay Nico, I’m flattered you’re paying attention to me, but what the hell?”

Nico’s eyes popped open and she turned her head toward the redhead with furrowed eyebrows, “excuse me? You should be thrilled to have the great Nico-Nico-Nii’s attention!”

Maki gave her a flat look in return, “thrilled is an exaggeration Nico, but that’s not the point.” A finger went to her hair, idly twirling some of the thick silky red strands in an instinctive habit. “What’s going on up there? You’ve been acting funny since I started heading over here with you.”

Nico stared incredulously at her, “I’ve been acting weird? You’ve been the weird one Maki!”

Maki recoiled with a confused blink, “what? How have I been acting weird?”

“You’re so flat!” Nico exclaimed and gestured toward the redhead, “where’s the fire you were showing off and shoving in my face yesterday?”

Maki's expression smoothed into an, ‘oh’ expression before she gave a light chuckle and shake of the head. “I’m an alpha-beta Nico, so the occasional bout of calm attitude is _normal.”_ She raised a delicate eyebrow, “if being calm is that weird, would you rather I argued with you?”

Nico stared at her, what the hell was wrong with this girl? “What the fuck is with your attitude problems?” she asked grumpily and crossed her arms over her chest.

“It’s called being an alpha-beta werewolf Nico-chan,” Maki deadpanned but in a way that was more familiar to the ravenette. 

“What does that mean though, do you have a split personality or something?” Nico was both interested and concerned, especially when she would have to live with her presence for likely the rest of her life if she valued her soul bond.

Maki shook her head, “no, it’s more like my impulse control fluctuates up and down along with my energy levels. I wouldn’t worry too much about it, I don’t really have many days where my body’s in ‘beta’ mode, or lower energy and calm like you were just whining about.”

Nico scowled, “I wasn’t whining! I was merely concerned, tomato-head!”

“Well you’re welcome to be as much of a worry wart as you want,” Maki rolled her eyes, “but asking questions and getting answers is always the better solution.”

“I’m not a worry wart,” Nico grumbled.

“Says the one who’s worried about a minor personality shift,” Maki deadpanned and Nico couldn’t help the smile that tugged at her lips as the arrival of Maki’s natural attitude. 

“Look,” Nico obediently looked at the redhead, “don’t worry so much.” Maki twirled her finger in her red hair, “if I’m calm or quiet it’s probably because I’m just tired and have more impulse control than normal.” 

“I’ll keep the uncomfortableness with my lack of quips in mind though,” Maki smirked and Nico’s heart skipped a beat at the smug canine teeth showing smirk on the beautiful redhead’s face. “Gotta know how to keep the dramatic actress happy now don’t I?”

“you betcha,” Nico smirked back, “Nico requires the utmost of attention.”

Maki snorted, “fine, I’ll play something for you later then, maybe then that’ll be enough attention to satisfy you shortie.” 

Nico faltered, the redhead was going to play for her? The music genius who she was apparently destined to be with, after knowing her for just over a day was willing to play for her, just her. 

Maki blinked at the lack of reply then her face flushed bright red and she stumbled to her feet, “erm, I’m just… gonna leave now…” 

Before Nico could respond Maki was gone, tripping over the tiny pool in the front of the room and narrowly avoiding landing on her face, but left at the speed of lightning.

However even after Maki left, Nico couldn’t help but smile. Maki Nishikino was quite the character and… Nico was finding herself more and more interested and dare she say, attached to the fiery redhead.

Nico settled comfortably in her beanbag and attempted to do what Maki had originally asked her to, closing her eyes and focusing on her senses. Even if she could still smell traces of the redhead’s minty perfume.

* * *

“Umi, she’s going to kill you,” Honoka’s statement didn’t help reassure the alpha that her mate wasn’t going to strangle her for her injury.

“No, she is going to kill _you,_ ” Umi grunted and shot the ginger a glare from where she was sitting in front of her friend ontop of a desk in an unused office of the hospital, “you are the one who didn’t stop the sniper.”

Honoka rolled her eyes, lightly slugged Umi in the shoulder, and ignored Umi’s scowl as the action sent pain ripple through her chest and abdomen. “You’re lucky I didn’t tell her you only called me to tell me to get the council into temporary hiding,” she pointed out after a moment of silence while she helped clean out her friend’s injury, “and that I came here on my own Umi.”

“Thank you,” Umi put down her pride and gruffly thanked the ginger.

At Honoka’s lack of response Umi sighed and rolled her eyes, “thank you for coming here and helping me Honoka.”

“We’ve always got each other’s backs,” Honoka replied and Umi invisibly winced at the sting of the rubbing alcohol, “grew up together...”

“...stay together,” Umi finished the phrase then lightly chuckled, “wasn’t Kotori the one who came up with that saying?” 

“I don’t remember,” Honoka giggled and finally put down the medical supplies before she hopped up next to the bluenette. There wasn’t much else she could do for the injury without magic or high end medical equipment and Umi wouldn’t agree to the latter unless she was forced to. “We were what, seven at the time?”

Umi nodded, “and Kotori was six,” she confirmed, “back before we really knew what all of us were going to get all wrapped up in when we grew up.”

Honoka swung her legs, “there’s some good things that come with growing up,” she pointed out and turned toward Umi who shifted her vision to be looking at her out of the corner of her eye. “I mean, you ended up with Kotori-chan right? And wow, none of us were expecting that!” She laughed, “plus you were so awkward and shy about it too!”

“Good grief,” Umi grumbled but she couldn’t help the mild smile that tugged at her lips, “I really don’t need a reminder of how awkward I was, Kotori still teases me.”

Umi felt Honoka nudge her with her elbow, “she teases you because she feels as ease around you, you know that Umi.”

Umi leaned back on her arms just slightly, mind drifting slightly to the woman that had her focus due to her job but mostly due to the relationship and the bond between them. “I know, it’s been that way since we were teenagers and it’s not something that really bothers me or anything.”

“Ah, see one of my favorite moments in regards to you two had to be back when we were… I don’t know, sixteen? You guys were still new to the whole bonded minds thing. Anyway, we were all in this really important meeting during the winter and you were in charge of guarding the doors but you were struggling to keep focused-”

Umi shut her eyes and pleaded for patience and for her embarrassment to not show up on her face. She knew this story, she also knew the embarrassment of the incident and not to mention the embarrassment of the lecture she had gotten later from her parents about it.

“-and poor Kotori got asked why her face was red and she repeatedly had to brush it off. The startled look on Kotori’s face in the beginning of the meeting was worth a hundred pictures, Umi,” Honoka grinned and Umi rolled her eyes. 

“The winter months screw with our heads Honoka, or need I remind you-”

Honoka quickly shook her head and held her hands up in a motion of surrender, “nope!”

“Good,” Umi hummed with a strained sigh and tried to relax her body, even if it was just for a few precious moments. 

Her injury throbbed, the sort of pain that pressed harshly behind her eyes and threatened to blind her. Only her werewolf blood and a lot of rigorous training was keeping her fully conscious and mentally cognitive. She had no doubt that the moment she let the walls blocking some of her pain receptors down she would lose the fight of keeping from falling to the ground and howling like a child, blind and deaf from pain.

Her chest spiked in pain and Umi winced. A hand instinctively went to the bottom of her sternum, or more accurately where her sternum would’ve been were it not for the now shattered bones that had given way under the sniper bullet.

 _I won’t give in, not even when my wolf healing kicks in,_ Umi stubbornly told herself and mentally scolded herself for not being prepared for the sniper. She should’ve been ready, she should’ve thought about the possibility of a sniper’s presence and taken action, not to have to be saved by someone. Even if the friend’s presence was very welcome and dare she say comforting right now in particular.

She had been too focused on Kotori to have noticed the sniper till just before the bullet impacted her wolf form’s back and exited through her chest. Her mind had been filled with protecting Kotori and the precious secret they shared that could break down the career Kotori had been involved with since she was just over eleven years old. So in a way, Umi was grateful for the pain. It served as a harsh reminder that she needed to keep better control over her emotions and center her focus, rare occurrence or not.

“Hey,” Honoka’s gentle nudge with her elbow made pain stab at Umi’s chest at the jostling but she merely dropped her hand to her lap and looked over at the other werewolf. “Stop beating yourself up Umi,” the ginger werewolf urged and lightly swung her legs back and forth in a restless manner. “You’re a werewolf, not some all-seeing god, there’s no way even you would be able to locate and take out a sniper multiple blocks away in bright _daylight_.” 

“I know,” Umi begrudgingly sighed at the rare logic in her friend’s statement, “but I could have been paying more attention from the beginning and stopped the whole thing.”

“The car was stolen from the Minami’s, Kotori’s jacket was switched on the plane, Umi,” Honoka turned to face the other body guard, “you can’t be everywhere at once you know right? Besides, Kotori’s safe like she always is when you’re around.”

Umi made a frustrated noise, “sure I could not have avoided it completely, but there are certain things here and there that just don’t add up Honoka.” The werewolf alpha hauled her throbbing body to her feet, despite Honoka’s sharp breath of protest, and began to pace. “How did they know about Kotori’s type of magic? The fact that most of her magic is an AoE type instead of DP is a hidden fact. There are few people that know about her near inability to pinpoint a specific target and not affect an entire room of people.”

Umi rubbed at one of her aching temples, “and splitting us up? That’s completely unheard of. I’ve been protecting Kotori as her body guard for over thirteen years and I’ve never had a situation where they split me from Kotori in order to _incapacitate her._ They knew that putting distance between Kotori and I would weaken Kotori’s magic, so without her wings she would be completely helpless in protecting herself. 

“It’s public knowledge that Kotori’s an angel, so is trying to manipulate her emotions backfires with internal injuries on the user, so why did they do it?” Umi paced a tighter path, silver flickering in the deep amber pools of her eyes.

Honoka sat up straighter, blue eyes narrowing in suspicion and worry as she caught on. “Kotori’s emotions have always fiddled with her magic, so-

“-So they manipulated her at the cost of their own physical health in order to further weaken her,” Umi confirmed the ginger’s thoughts and gave a protective growl low in her throat. “This was organized, Honoka, I doubt the sniper was their first course of action. The sniper had to be a safety measure in case I showed up.”

Honoka’s eyes narrowed further, “but to do damage like it did to you Umi, the bullet must’ve been at least armor piercing and lined with silver. Seems kinda like we’ve got a- ”

“I know,” Umi breathed out a slow exhale and stood still, letting the adrenaline finally leave her system, “and I’ll have someone look into this-” Agony suddenly ripped through Umi’s chest and the bluenette lurched, her vision flickered violently in retaliation for the sheer intensity of the pain in her chest. Umi ignored the tingling in her fingers and toes as her vision flickered again.

She couldn’t let the pain trickle through her and Kotori’s bond, especially right now. It had been a struggle to keep her calm and focused on her job and career in the first place, much less right now. The angel was meeting with the head of the hospital right now according to the shifted time frames Umi had redesigned upon their arrival. So this would be the worst time possible for her pain to leak over the bond and cause Kotori intense amounts of concern that Umi knew would make her excuse herself from the meeting to come find her. 

Umi tightly clenched her jaw as her vision flickered again and her balance faltered. 

“Umi-” Umi distantly heard Honoka speaking as she shakily lowered herself to the floor, “this isn’t just some scratch of something, you would’ve died out there were it not for magic and were it an inch higher even as a werewolf!”

The pain was agonizing, mind numbing and hard to control even for someone who was notorious for maintaining and controlling their emotions and things they felt on a general basis with an iron grip.

“I know,” Umi hissed around the dark spots in her vision and the material beneath her fingers crunched and threatened to give out beneath them, “but it wasn’t deadly, Honoka.” She was beginning to breathe hard and the sweat that had been developing over the journey here was getting worse, her body struggling to maintain normal levels of consciousness around the pain she felt like she was drowning in at the moment.

Honoka came into her vision as she knelt on the floor beside the other werewolf, “yeah but that doesn’t mean you’re going to be magically okay, we’re still human right?” 

Umi growled but didn’t bother to speak as she tilted her head back against the desk behind her and clenched her jaw harder than before. That damn sniper from the vehicle was the reason she was sitting here having Honoka Kosaka of all people chiding her about the limits of her physical body. 

Honoka had taken care of the sniper after she had heard the shot, Umi had felt it rip through her body, and Kotori had been narrowly missed by the offending bullet’s tagetory. However, it was the sniper’s fault that Umi’s normally high control over her personal magic faltered and caused the actual car wreck that could’ve easily killed Kotori were it not for the wards Umi had placed over her mate before she had been removed from the car. 

A groan slipped through Umi’s gritted teeth and she squeezed her eyes shut in an attempt to focus and find her center in peace for the moment, anything to muffle the pain going through her system. 

“Why’re you not using any magic?” Honoka questioned and effectively broke her concentration, but Umi could hear the worry in her voice. They both knew the injury couldn’t kill her, but if Kotori’s spell around keeping it from bleeding broke, the further blood loss definitely could. 

“I can’t,” Umi panted through gritted teeth, struggling to breathe properly at this point.

“Why? I know you can use healing spells,” Honoka asked in a stubborn way that reminded Umi of when they were kids and she had told Honoka no to surprising Kotori on her birthday. 

“I don’t… have any reserves,” Umi managed as she opened her eyes to look blearily at her friend, “right… now.”

Honoka’s expression changed to one of surprise, “Kotori-chan used that much magic?” She questioned even as she stood up and Umi watched her through pain blurrily eyes walk a few steps away and toward the desk where she grabbed something from the top of the desk.

Honoka crouched down beside Umi, a thin injection needle held carefully in one hand with a disgruntled expression on her face as she glanced at the needle.

Umi couldn’t help the internal amusement that bubbled up at Honoka’s reluctance around the needle and lifted her arm toward the other guard. Honoka had been afraid of needles since they were kids and even though they both knew the shot was for pain relief, the needle clearly still made Honoka extremely uncomfortable.

Umi felt the needle prick her skin at her elbow before Honoka reached up and placed the now empty injection onto the desk. 

“What did Kotori-chan do?” Honoka asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

Umi took her time in responding. She merely shut her eyes and leant her head back against the desk’s skirting. If given the choice she would never use drugs and medications simply because she couldn’t afford to have her mind and senses be fuzzy and dysfunctional. If she was going to protect Kotori she needed all of her senses and her mind working at peak performance. 

However in moments like right now without magic, something she had learned to rely on in regards to injuries, and barely able to stay conscious, she was forced to use it.

“She panicked like she did back when that necromancer attacked us in that meeting eight years ago.” Umi eventually responded to her friend with her eyes still closed and the medication beginning to do it’s work. She could feel the pain’s iron grip on her conscious mind beginning to slacken, allowing herself some breathing room and space to really think.

Umi could hear Honoka’s surprise through the long whistled exhale the ginger gave and didn’t blame her. It wasn’t often that Kotori showed the full power of her bloodline, in fact Umi had only seen it a handful of times herself and she had been watching over and been around the gentle-hearted angel since they were both young children. “Well that explains how you took care of that vampire despite your injury.”

Umi felt guilt through the pain, guilt like she always did after she was in a situation where her only liable option was to take a life. If someone asked her if she’d kill to keep Kotori safe Umi would reply with a firm yes. However, if someone asked her if she enjoyed taking someone’s life she’d instantly reply with a no. Because in her eyes, every life was precious and everyone, no matter the race or species, were still human some way or another. “I had to,” she sighed and wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, “if the Minami family mission is compromised who knows how badly the relationships between different supernatural races could fall apart.”

Honoka’s blue were knowing as she spoke what Umi hadn’t mentioned, “and your relationship with Kotori has to remain a secret.”

Umi didn’t show any signs of a negative reaction to the words. She heard the same words from Kotori’s mother and step-father whenever she was there and over the many years, both she and Kotori were desensitized to them. It was almost second nature for both of them to instantly switch from an alpha and luna to outwardly nothing more than friends and coworkers, and there was a part of Umi that hated that it existed, but the larger part knew that it was important to keep. 

Umi merely nodded, “like always, since Kotori’s the queen left on our side of the chessboard.”

Honoka rolled her eyes at the chess reference with that lopsided cheery grin of hers and offered the other werewolf a hand to get up, “been forever since I heard one of those Umi!”

Umi cracked a smirk. “It’s probably been just as long since the last time I used one,” she admitted and took Honoka’s hand.

“Kotori-chan still wipe the floor with you at chess?” Honoka asked as she pulled the other werewolf to her feet.

Umi hid a wince at how much force Honoka accidentally put into the pull and how it caused pain to flare up in her chest. “Of course,” she smiled at her old time friend who smirked.

“But you wouldn’t have it any other way now would you Umi-chan?” 

“Just don’t tell Kotori,” Umi conceded with a mild mannered smirk.

Honoka winked at the other werewolf, “well of course.”

* * *

**KotoUmi and NicoMaki Sketches (I know, my style's changed a freaking again XD)**

**And yes, Kotori has beautifully fluffy wolf ears on occasion ;)**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a ton of written stuff for the next two chapters while being stuck on that NicoMaki scene so the update should be faster.  
> Also, meet Honoka Kosuka everybody!


End file.
